


Out of Stone

by taljpg



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Confessions, Drinking, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fights, Greek Myths, Heavy Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Roman Myths, Secret Crush, Tags Are Hard, haven't written in a long time please be nice, sexy dreams
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:00:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28683696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taljpg/pseuds/taljpg
Summary: Greek and Roman myth were always Technoblade’s way of getting under Dream’s skin, but what happens when Dream sees a particular myth makes the usually cocky and confident player turn cold?“Yeah, Pygmalion was, like, the original incel.” He explained. “He rejected all the ladies around him because they were all whores in his mind until he fell in love with his own statue, something he created for himself exactly the way he wanted. It’s kinda fucked when you think about it.”Dream thought about the story as the low light of the pixels reflected against his eyes.“I mean, it’s a little romantic,” he muttered, trying not to focus on the scoff from the other man. “Weird and simp-y? Yeah, but he found love eventually. That’s good.”“Yeah… sure.”~~~Hello! I usually update on Fridays! Hope you enjoy!!! :)
Relationships: Clay | Dream/Dave | Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 300
Kudos: 960





	1. Bellerophon

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm new to this fandom so please be kind! I'm also horribly dyslexic so be kind to me and my typos. I would also like to say that this is a work of fiction and that these people shouldn't be contacted about his pleeease. Thanks for reading! :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and Techno are professional only and Dream is easily irritated by what he does. They talk about the Greek myths and stuff but and Dream finds out about his disdain for the myth of Pygmalion and, eventually, his disillusioned with love.

Dream found himself sitting at his computer shaking out his wrists as he looked into the countdown on his screen. Techno had challenged him to some standard pvp and accepted only to stop the constant messages and pestering of the other player’s fans.

Why did he have to make the challenge public?

It should be made clear that Dream was strictly professional with Techno. Nothing more and he liked it that way. The less he had to interact with the know-it-all English-major stereotype, the better. He didn’t really have any bad experience with him to make these negative emotions surface, but it was just something about the way he carried himself. If the smug attitude towards Dream wasn’t bad enough, comparing himself to Greek figures gets old quickly. One day it was Aries, the next it was Kronos, but most days, he was simply the Blood Good. 

“Ready to lose?” He heard the smug voice of Techno come through in his ears, making a bitter shiver go down the already irritated man’s spine.

He allowed himself one more irritated huff before unmuting. “I don’t plan on losing,” he said coolly, forcing his own bitterness down his throat where it sat uneasily in his stomach. 

He heard the annoying snicker from the other side and the call and he rolled his eyes. These were the days where he was glad he never showed his face, as having to keep his voice and his face neutral during this would have been actual hell on Earth. 

_Time to focus_ he thought to himself. 

“So,” Dream started confidently. “Unenchanted iron and anything we find around here?” He watched as Techno’s character crouch in front of him before he responded.

“Yep,” the other man responded simply. “Nether is off limits, no potions, and, since I actually want this stream to last a good amount of time, it’ll be best out of three.” 

Dream scoffed stretched one last time before allowing himself to properly shuffle through his equipment and put on his armor. He knew Techno was better than him at pvp, but if he could just get around him enough to get above him for a few solid hits, he’d have a shot. He’d just have to juke him out a few times and not react to the bullshit.

“Sounds good,” he said coolly, getting his finger back on the keys and doing a quick wiggle around to get comfortable. The familiar tone of somebody joining the call rang in his ears and the familiar voice of Sapnap chirped. “You guys ready for us to come on and judge?” 

Dream responded with a casual “Yup,” but continued to run through scenarios in his head. He just had to wait for the right openings and he would be good. 

The familiar sound of people joining the call flooded his ears and he was the names of Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, Sapnap, and George all come on to the server, loud as ever.

“Kick his ass, Techno!” Tommy shrieked into his mic, cackling as he was hit by Tubbo. Dream hummed in response, very clearly trying to stay focused.

“Okay!” Sapnap interjected, cutting off some side conversations that had started. “These two have already discussed the rules for their fight, so I think we’re ready to get started here! Alright boys, take your mark…”

Dream clenched his hands into fists once more and took a deep breath.

“... get set…”

He rested his hands on the mouse and keyboard once more. He was not about to lose.

“...Fight!”

Dream quickly took off in the opposite direction, hoping to create some space between them so he could get some blocks to cut off his enemy.

“Where are you doing Dream?” Techno hollered, the grin on his face nearly audible with the way he said it. “We’re supposed to be fighting!”

Dream continued to ignore his opponent and quickly collected some dirt. Just in case. He quickly crouched and started to sneak away from the direction he ran, keeping an eye out for any pink player-shaped character to run by him. Lucky for him, Techno boldly ran past him and didn’t seem to notice. Dream quickly jumped on the opportunity and managed to get a few good hits in before retreating, grinning as he heard a mystified “What?!” courtesy of his opponent. He continued to blaze ahead and only turned a few times to check and see how close his enemy was to him.

Seeing as Techno was already swinging and starting to talk shit, he turned around quickly and got a couple more good hits on the other man. He had to be low. 

Dream’s assumption was confirmed by Techno’s character sprinting away, to which he couldn’t help but get a little cocky about it.

“I thought you wanted a fight!” he taunted, following Techno’s sprinting character and cackling. “I’m fighting and you’re running away! C’mere Techno!”

Dream managed to get on him and landed a few more hits and, with one last hit, the chat certified Techno’s death. He wheezed a little as he cheerfully made his way back, finding some significant satisfaction in managing to shut up the cocky pig if only for a moment.

“What happened to ‘Technoblad never dies,’ hm?” Dream continued to tease, depositing the other’s gear back to him at spawn. “My chat seems to disagree.” Sure he might have been getting a bit cocky, but it was a huge rush to get a kill off on the person who was so insistent that he was going to win.

Instead of the reaction he was hoping to get, he was met with an almost wicked laugh. “Well my chat said I should let you have one win,” he almost purred. “Don’t worry, I’ll shut that mouth up soon, Bellerophon.”

Before dream could even ask who the fuck Bellerophon was, he found himself being chased by the other man. No matter how many blocks he placed, no matter how many trees he parkoured across, and no matter how many times he switched back, Techno always managed to get a hit. 

Damn him and his competitive nature.

Techno managed to get a kill for himself, making the score a spicy one-to-one. Dream muttered curses under his breath and quickly tried to jump into the third and final round of combat. Usually, he was a relatively good sport about losing, but this was different. There was no way he was going to lose to Techno again. Not like this.

“Bellerophon!” Techno called, already starting to run towards Dream and go on the offence. “Stop running from your fate! You’ve challenged the Blood God and now you’ll suffer for it!”

“Who the fuck is Bellerophon!?” Dream cried out, frantically attempting to find some way to distract him for long enough to find some sort of advantage. Luckily for him, Techno was always willing to monologue in the middle of combat.

“Bellerophon was a hero who tested his fate a little too hard,” he explained a little too gleefully, still chasing him as they went. “He killed his family, killed the chimera, and got respect from the king himself! But he still wasn’t satisfied! He still challenged Zeus! And much like that bastard god, I’m gonna be the one to strike you down! Never challenge a God, Dream!”

Dream felt his lip twitch with irritation as the other man spoke. Of course it was another God comparison. Why would it be anything else from him? Dream ground his teeth together and made a quick decision.

Dream turned around quickly and silently started to attack Techno. He knew the longer he ran, the more he would have to listen to the other man monologue. He made the decision that he would shut this down as quickly as he could manage.

Techno easily took advantage of the emotional response to his words and, quite unceremoniously, laid the final, killing blow to Dream. He sat in front of the death screen and felt the anger begin to bubble up into his ears and he listened to the crackling sound of everybody in the call either laughing or booing over the outcome. This was the outcome Dream was expecting, but that didn’t make it any easier to process. 

“What the fuck?!” he cried. “I totally had you! You had to have been low!” Dream knew he wasn’t, but It would make for good content if he let a little bit of his anger bubble over. 

“Not even close, Dreamy,” Techno said coolly. “That might have been the easiest fight I’ve ever had against you! Were you going easy on me?”

Dream clicked the respawn button and pulled his hands away from the keyboard, leaning back and trying to quell his toxic and bitter feelings. Content was good, but being a dick in public was not a good look.

“Whatever,” he grumbled. “You threw me off with the Greek myth bullshit. What was that even about? You call Tommy Theseus and now me Bellerophon? That’s just weird.”

Techno’s laughter as he returned to spawn sounded almost mocking in his ears. “Look, I see connections and I make them,” he said matter-of-factly. “You and Tommy are both tragic heroes of your own stories. Tommy has worked to get his city to where he wanted it to be and you’re always trying to be a god amongst men. At least Theseus was killed at the end of his story.”

The shrieking protests from Tommy filled his ears as he challenged Techno to an impulsive fight and Dream joined the others nearby to watch the chaos that would almost certainly ensue. On a second screen, away from his stream, be pulled up a search bar and typed in the name.

Bellerophon.

A couple of results appeared, most vase paintings of a man on a Pegasus flying with a spear in his hands, and he scrolled down a few times to see what he could find on this character he was being compared to. In all, Bellerophon seemed to be a pretty neat dude. Killed the Chimera, Solymoi, the Amazons, and Carian pirates, but it seemed like he fell short once he tried to fly up to olympus to join the gods. 

He pushed his luck a little too far and he was rightfully punished for it. 

Dream was brought back to reality by the loud sound of Tommy screaming and running away from a cackling Technoblade. He sighed heavily and closed out the webpage, turning his full attention back to the challenge at hand. 

“You did better than you usually do,” Sapnap said encouragingly. “He was just getting under your skin in any way he could to win. That’s just what he does.”

Dream rewarded the encouragement with a huff and he crossed his arms defensively in front of him. “Yeah,” he said coolly. “He’s just too cocky about everything and it’s just annoying.” 

Dream watched as his chat erupted into speculations about Dream being a poor sport, Techno cheating somehow, and other things of the sort. Geez, chat can get toxic fast. He rolled his eyes and muted his mic for a moment to speak to his chat.

“Guys,” he said coolly. “Techno won fair and square. I’m just really competitive. I’m not actually mad, chill out.”

In all honesty, he was kind of mad, but he wasn’t about to tell his fans that he was mad about it. All that would do would start more drama and force him into more interactions with the guy. As much as it sucked to have to keep every emotion on the down-low, it was what was best for everybody. 

After a few more people challenged Techno, and failed miserably, Dream took a look at the time and saw that it was starting to go on kinda long. I mean, how long can you realistically have a fight and retain an audience’s retention? 

“Do you guys wanna switch games?” he suggested, watching as his character hopped around the space. “My chat’s getting antsy.”

Much to his surprise, the first person to speak up was Techno himself. “As much as I love winning,” he said. “I agree. Maybe something less combat? I dunno what though.”

After some deliberation, most people decided that they’d just end their stream, Dream and Techno being some of them. Others decided to continue streaming with each other doing other things, but were happy to accept the raids from the other streamers. 

Dream was in the middle of thanking his audience for coming and to check out the other streamers when he received a private dm from Techno.

 _Weird…_ he thought to himself, but he didn’t bother to acknowledge it while he was signing off.

“Stick around for George’s stream! Thanks for tuning in. Bye.”

Dream completed the raid and ended his stream, taking a deep breath before looking at the DM he received.

_‘Yo, can we talk for a sec?’_

Dream’s eyebrows furrowed and he tried to logic his way through the request. What was techno trying to get at here? After some serious consideration, he eventually responded.

_‘yeah why ? ’_

Dream stood up from his seat and walked to the kitchen to grab some water and something to eat, it having slipped his mind for a while before he was streaming. He heard the familiar tone of a response in his dm’s and he pulled out his phone to see the response.

_‘I just want to clarify some things. Nothing major.’_

Dream pursed his lips and tried to think about what needed clarification. They had their battle, they entertained an audience, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He genuinely had no idea what it could be about. Whatever the case was, he reluctantly agreed

 _‘sure’_ he responded simply. _‘wanna play something and chat or is this more serious’_

There was a few seconds before the other responded and he managed to make it back to his computer before he saw the notification light up on his phone and computer screen. 

_‘We can play something. I’ll be on Hypixel. Just jump on the call whenever you’re ready.’_

Dream sighed heavily and took a sip of his water, starting up Hypixel and forcing himself to relax a bit. He got on and quickly went to one of the parkour maps in a random lobby and started mindlessly doing some easy jumps around the space. He saw the notification that Technoblade had joined the game and he closed his eyes for a moment. He found himself being teleported to Techno’s massive potato farm, which was now basically unused after being crowned the Potato King, but it was still an impressive sight. He hesitated for a moment, but eventually jumped on the call to… talk?

“Hey,” he said casually, trying to mask any discomfort he had about all this. “What’s up?”

Technoblade hummed in greeting and the two remained in silence for a while, just jumping around and doing their own thing. Eventually, the silence was too much for Dream to sit through and he cleared his throat loudly.

“You wanted to talk about something,” he said quickly, hoping to be able get this done quickly. He was met with another hum from Technoblade and another round of silence. 

It took a minute or so before Techno eventually spoke up, but the words he said were honestly surprising.

“Sapnap told me to talk to you,” he admitted. “Said it was something about you being upset about something I said?”

Dream muttered a gentle "damn it" under his breath and cursed his attentive friend. Yeah, he was a little frustrated, but he wasn’t going to actually do anything about it. Damn Sapnap and his attentiveness.

“Yeah,” Dream admitted to him. “I just get annoyed easy. That’s it.”

Techno took another long pause before another sentence left his lips. It almost sounded like he was being cautious around Dream. How odd…

“Is it anything specific I’m doing?” he questioned, actually sounding genuine. “If it’s, like, actually bad, I can try to keep it in check.”

Dream hesitated before responding and actually considered the words he was hearing. Technoblade was being considerate for somebody? Specifically towards Dream? This couldn’t have been the same guy who was forever finding the things that irritated him and using it to annoy him. No way.

Nevertheless, he was still going to take advantage of this moment.

“Honestly,” he said carefully. “The constant references to myth was getting kind of annoying. It’s just frustrating when you talk about things only you know about. It makes everybody feel dumb.”

He heard a gentle snort from Techno’s end and Dream’s eyebrows furrowed nearly instinctually. Of course he was going to laugh about this. Asshole.

“If you’re confused,” he teased. “Just ask for clarification. I love to explain stuff like that.”

Dream scoffed and said a quiet “Clearly.” before allowing the moment to return to silence. He waited for Techno to continue the conversation, but, upon realizing that nothing was going going to come from the Techno corner, he decided to continue.

“How do you even know that much?” He questioned. “Like, it seems like everybody has a different Greek character in your mind. How do you even remember that many stories?”

Dream could almost hear the smile on the other side as Techno fell into his element. Once an English major, always an English major, I guess, even when you drop out. 

“It’s just a passion of mine,” he admitted. “I’ve always found the stories interesting and there are just so many connections in modern literature and story telling. Since it was all oral storytelling, they would always morph from telling to telling and it just created so many interesting variations. I mean, even Shakespeare borrowed from the myths. He had Ovid's Metamorphoses on his desk and he looked at it for inspiration and for facts on his historical plays. It’s just a staple in all literature and I think it’s important to know where everything comes from.”

Dream hesitated a moment before answering, honestly impressed that Techno was so influenced by this work that it came up in his life so much. He found himself saying his response without much of a second thought.

“Pff. Nerd.”

Thankfully, Techno was a good sport about it and offered a small chuckle in response. “Yeah, it’s surprisingly not the nerdiest thing about me,” he admitted. “But it’s still pretty lame.”

“Not really,” Dream said honestly, jumping all over Techno’s build and trying to make different jumps to entertain himself. “Annoying, yeah, but it’s useful for storytelling, I guess. It makes you a pretty solid addition to the server. I don’t think I could write some of the interpersonal stuff you do.”

Techno was quiet again, seeming to process the words that Dream had just said. Before he could respond, Dream interrupted him with a seemingly random question.

“What’s the dumbest Greek story?” He questioned, still bouncing all over the farm skillfully. “I mean, if there’s so many good ones, there has to be a few ones that are just stupid.”

Dream heard the small exhale of air as it left Techno’s nostrils and he started to jump around the farm with Dream.

“In my opinion,” he answered honestly, “Probably the story of Pygmalion.”

Dream stopped jumping and tried to think of anything that he might have remembered about the obscure story.

“Sorry,” he admitted. “I’m not familiar with it. What did he do?”

Techno snickered a bit and continued to jump from block to block. 

“Yeah, Pygmalion was, like, the original incel.” He explained. “He rejected all the ladies around him because they were all whores in his mind until he fell in love with his own statue, something he created for himself exactly the way he wanted. It’s kinda fucked when you think about it.”

Dream thought about the story as the low light of the pixels reflected against his eyes. 

“I mean, it’s a little romantic,” he muttered, trying not to focus on the scoff from the other man. “Weird and incel-y? Yeah, but he found love eventually. That’s good.”

There was a long pause between Dream’s comment and the response of the other man. Dream almost worried that he had embarrassed himself with his response, but Techno’s response actually left him with more questions than he had answers for.

“Yeah… sure.”

Dream hesitated for a moment and thought about the seemingly bitter response. Dream was far from a romantic man, but this seemed a little bit jaded even for him. What did Techno have against love?

“Sounds like somebody doesn’t like a happy ending,” he said quietly, only to be rewarded with a cold chuckle from the man on the other side of the call. “Or is it something else?”

Techno sighed heavily and Dream heard the fabric of his shirt rustle around his mic.

“I just think that people can’t be saved by love,” He answered honestly. “The Greeks loved the idea of love saving people, but it also started just as many wars. It’s a lot of hassle for something that destroys just as much as it brings people together. The world’s honestly easier without it getting in the way.”

Dream thought about his response and pursed his lips. It seemed like a weirdly serious take to have on something as simple as love. Love was just people being happy, so why be so bitter about it?

“Well,” Techno said uncomfortably. “I think that it’s starting to get late for you, so we should probably hop off for the night.”

Dream looked at the small clock next to his computer screen and saw the time read a crisp 23:44, and sighed heavily. He didn’t think he would have been up that late, but the fact that he was ending his night with Techno instead of Sapnap or even George was kind of weird and foreign to him. Hopefully, this wouldn’t become a regular thing.

“Yeah,” he responded slowly. “Maybe you can tell me more about your dumb Greek myths some other time, Pygmalion.”

He heard Techno scoff and his voice got a little more distant from the mic as he spoke.

“Please,” the other man said quietly. “I’m not Pygmalion and I never plan on being him.”

Dream snickered a bit and left the Hypixel server, closing out of minecraft and preparing to end the discord call.

“You never know,” he taunted. “Sometimes you become the one thing you hate when you meet the right person.” 

Before Techno could get a response out, Dream disconnected from the call. He laughed to himself at the comedy of his timing and smiled a bit at how pleasant the call turned out to be. He was genuinely worried that the call would turn sour and he was actually a little relieved that Techno seemed to turn down the dick-ish nature for a bit to just talk normally. Y’know, like normal people.

Dream stood up from his chair and, after doing a big stretch and listening to the satisfying pop of his vertebrae realigning themselves, he made his way to his bedroom to start properly preparing for the night. 

He changed out of his “work” clothes, which usually consisted of a hoodie and gym shorts, and into some boxers and a comfortable t-shirt. Florida nights were usually pretty cool, but the humidity was usually hell on Earth, so the lighter the clothes, the better.

He made his way to the bathroom and started to brush his teeth. He was about half way through his night time bathroom routine when he realized something that nearly made him choke on his toothpaste.

He had a positive interaction with Technoblade.

He furrowed his brow and looked at his reflection in the mirror, hoping the him behind the glass would be able to answer his multiplying questions. Unfortunately, he was only met with the same confusion he was feeling on the right side of the mirror.

He put his toothbrush haphazardly on the counter and quickly made his way to his bed, hoping to sleep off his confusion over the surprisingly positive interaction.

He climbed into his comfortable bed and pulled the covers up to his ears, rolling onto his side and looking out the window for a moment to watch the moon slowly creep across the sky. With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes and allowed sleep to pull him under her powerful hand.

Whatever it was that made the chat tolerable, he was sure it was a one time thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAh okay i haven't written fanfiction in a long time, so I hope this isn't too bad :) Thanks and enjoy the story!


	2. Damon and Pythias

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream finds Technoblade's disillusion with love interesting and learns more about Phymiglion, Bellerophon and other myths to try to get a conversations going. They start to actually get friendly with each other and it evolves into an apparent budding friendship. Techno admits that he didn’t really like Dream upon meeting him, but is starting to like him a bit more. Oh no. 
> 
> (Alternate title: "Florida Man Touches Grass for a Long Time")

It had been a while since the almost pleasant conversation between himself and Technoblade had occurred and Dream was still trying to see where these less negative emotions fit in with his perception of the other man. No matter which way he spun it, the conversation he had with Technoblade didn’t seem to fit with the Technoblade he’d built up in his mind.

He had a few more brief interactions with the other man and a few of them even managed to be pretty painless. Sure there was still the back and forth, half-hearted bickering, but he didn’t seem to bother Dream as much as he usually did.

He would even occasionally find himself doing some banter that was actually towards other people and Techno would take his side on things. 

This new reality was unsettling to the faceless creator.

He found himself getting off calls and games that he played with the other man at the end of the night with a small smile on his face. Hell, he even found himself doing his own research to figure out some Greek and roman myths to be able to hold a conversation with the other man.

Odd.

On this particular day, a good week or so since the interaction that started Dream’s confusion in the first place, Techno invited him to play a casual round of bedwars and talk about random stuff. ‘It’ll be good for views.’ he remembered the other saying casually. 

Dream was a little bit bitter about being farmed for views, but it was just the reality of most of his relationships. That’s not to say that people _only_ wanted him around to get their views up, but the jokes were always a little too real. As much as he tried to be casual about the joke, he did hope that people other than Sapnap and George would eventually just want to hang out with him. 

Not like he was lonely or anything! He was just itching to have friends outside of the Dream Team.

Dream decided to not stream and give Techno the views he wanted, mostly just so he didn’t have to fuss about setting his stream, but also so he could hold it over Techno’s head, mostly as a joke, of course.

Technoblade was pretty good at the game, so Dream was able to actually do his own thing and try and get a few solid wins destroying beds and letting Technoblade come in and do the pvp part of it. Rogue and Fighter. The best class combo for the most efficient combat.

As they played, they got into such a solid setup that they were able to talk about all sorts of things in between communicating about what to do in game. They talked about everything from programming, the many, MANY times where people had attempted to cancel Dream, and even to just talking about childhood memories.

And, much to Dream’s surprise, it felt good.

It was nice to have somebody to just chat with and win games with. Even if that person was somebody he didn’t particularly get along with.

After some runs of just having fun, the pair decided to just relax for a moment and just do some running around a lobby area and chat, mostly just to give Techo time to thank people for donating and to talk to his chat. 

Dream mostly kept to himself while Techno muted to speak to his viewers. His mind wandered to some other things and he quietly fidgeted with a pen on his desk, clicking it down and watching it leap from one side of the surface to the other. He had to keep his hands busy somehow while he waited for the other to finish up. 

He mindlessly clicked the pen to a made up tune and allowed his mind to wander. It first went to the usual things-- ‘Did I eat today.’ ‘I should drink more water,’ ‘Is water wet,’ -- but then his brain got distracted with the fact that every few clicks, the pen would jam. His eyebrows furrowed and he clicked it against his desk to try and resolve the problem.

“My chat’s saying they can hear you clicking something ,” Techno suddenly said in his ears and Dream felt a jolt go up his spine at being called out. 

“Sorry,” he apologized quietly. “Forgot to mute.”

“Clearly,” Techno teased, obviously not upset but still wanting to light a small wildfire under the other man’s feet in hopes of getting a fun reaction.

Dream huffed and crossed his arms, seeing Techno’s play and forcing himself to not give the reaction he wanted. 

“I’m just bored,” Dream confessed. 

There was a moment of silence between them and Dream almost thought he had offended the other man somehow. After a few seconds of sitting in the silence, Techno continued to read his donations again, unmuted this time. 

_Was that intentional?_ Dream questioned internally, not daring to ask the other about his intentions.

He kept the question to himself and continued to bounce around Techno’s still character as he continued to ask some questions coming in from his viewers. Dream eventually pulled out his phone and got up to date on a new change coming to the game. Wait piglins were going to drop what now?

“Are you familiar with the story of Damon and Pythias?” Techno said aloud, clearly reading from his chat. “No, I’m not. I can only assume they were two dudes who fought people, right?”

“They were friends actually,” Dream said without really thinking. “Sacrificed themselves for the other. Some king thought it was nice enough to set them free.”

There was a still silence where Techno’s character turned to face Dream’s.

“I thought you didn’t know about my dumb myth stuff,” Techno said, bewilderment seeping into his tone as he spoke. 

Ah, a missing bit of information he neglected to tell the other man. Dream had done a quick scan of a few Greek and roman stories to make sure that he would be prepared for Techno’s inevitable monologue about some Greek or roman guy outside of the ones the other man had mentioned the other day.

Who could blame Dream for wanting to be prepared?

“I just wanted to be prepared for you to say something dumb,” Dream said quickly. “That just happens to be one that came up when I looked.”

There was a long pause that was quickly making Dream uncomfortable. He shifted in his chair and cleared his throat loudly, hoping that he would be able to talk himself out of this situation.

… wait… why did he think this was a situation?

“What?” Dream said defiantly, pushing the small concern to the back of his mind. “I looked up a few things to make sure that you didn’t try and make me look stupid! Stop looking so much into it!” Dream could almost hear the grin on the other side of the call.

“You learned about something I’m interested in for me,” He said, his tone riding the thin line between teasing and endearment.

“No!” Dream said quickly, huffing and quickly trying to fix the words that were already floating around.

“No, I’m flattered!” Techno said quickly, the grin on his face almost audible. “I’m assuming that means I can go back to making all those references you hate so much?”

Dream rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. 

“I guess,” he said dismissively. “But just know that it’s still really annoying and I’m going to complain about it.”

The two loaded up another game and continued to play after sharing a small laugh, but Dream felt something in the pit of his stomach starting to bubble up. More pieces that didn’t fit with his perception of Technoblade fell into his lap and all he could do was look at them, confused. He remained quiet for a while longer and silently tried to fit in new pieces into the mystery puzzle that was Technoblade.

They played for a while and, after a few hours and a few consecutive defeats, eventually Dream stretched and let out a loud exhale. He was starting to get some serious eye strain and his stomach rumbled in protest the longer he went without feeding himself.

“I’m gonna be real,” Dream said lazily. “I’m getting pretty tired. I might jump off soon.”

To his surprise, Techno hummed in agreement.

“We’ve been playing for, like, almost four hours,” he confirmed. “I have some other things I have to do irl, so maybe we should just call it for the night.”

Dream hummed quietly in agreement and let Techno end his stream. He occupied himself by twiddling that same pen from earlier in his fingers and just listening to Techno speak to his audience, thanking some people who made last minute donations, some new subs, and even some people who managed to ask some specific questions.’

“Hey, Dream,” he said almost happily. “They’re calling us Damon and Pythias in my chat,”

Dream scoffed and rolled his eyes. Of course they were.

“Shame, ‘cause I wouldn’t sacrifice shit for you,” Dream retorted, managing to keep his tone just light enough to show that he really was just joking. “But you already assigned me that other guy, so we’re good.”

Techno rewarded the goof with a small laugh and he continued to say his goodbyes to his viewers and, after a few minutes, he properly ended it. Dream heard a big sigh from the other side and felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. 

“Aaah so it’s not just because I’m tired then?” he teased, to which Techno yawned a tired “uh huh.”

Dream allowed there to be a silence between them for a moment, honestly enjoying the quiet and not having to be as attentive. Even when he wasn’t the one actually streaming, like he felt exhausted after a long recording. Hell, who was he kidding. He often found himself getting tired doing anything for an extended period of time. Less of a physical tired and more of a mental tired. ADHD was a bitch like that.

“Did you actually look at myths to keep up with me?” Techno questioned after a while, pulling Dream out of his thoughts. “Or was that a bit to get people excited for some lore stuff?”

Dream thought about his response for a moment and tried to sort through the question. He had wanted to learn a little bit about Techno’s interests to make sure he didn’t make him look stupid, but he guessed that it would probably also be good for him to know a bit of classical mythology for the way Techno was taking the smp’s arc.

“I mean a little of both,” he said mostly honestly, “I don’t like not knowing things and I don’t want to have to ask every time I don’t understand something you reference. That’s just irritating to be confused all the time, y’know?” 

Technoblade hummed in understanding and left the game, an action that Dream copied shortly after. Techno stayed on the call for a bit longer before clearing his throat.

“Well, I had fun,” he said awkwardly. “We should do this kind of thing more often.”

Dream’s eyebrows furrowed and he listened to the other’s words carefully. Do it again? Dream hadn’t really thought about doing much more with Techno unless he’d asked specifically, but… he supposed this was a request to do this more. It would honestly be rude for him to decline the offer.

“Sure,” Dream responded casually. “It’ll probably be good for your views.”

Techno laughed breathily and dream could hear the creak of the other man’s chair as he seemed to adjust uncomfortably. Dream worried for a moment that he had said something particularly bad to cause the other man some discomfort.

“Yeah, well,” Techno said a little softer. “I love to stream with you, but I think it might be nice to do this kinda stuff without streaming. Y’know, just to fuck around? No stress?”

Dream felt his eyebrows raise at the idea of them just doing this type of thing casually and he couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of his lips. This was what he’d wanted. But he wasn’t expecting it to be Technoblade.

The smile fell from his face for a moment and his expression turned stony. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted this close of a relationship with the other man at this point and he was honestly a little too afraid to look into it too hard. 

After considering his offer for a second or two, Dream came to his conclusion.

“Sure,” he answered simply, pulling up his email and hoping to find something good like somebody wanting to pay him to promote something he actually liked. That would be nice.

There was a beat before Techno spoke again.

“Seriously?” he questioned. “No fuss? No fight?”

Dream closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

“Yeah,” he responded, his tone only a little bit more short. “Unless you want to argue. I can totally find something if that’s what you want.”

He heard Technoblade’s laugh come through his headset and Dream felt his stomach uncomfortably flip in his abdomen. 

_What the fuck?_ He thought to himself, blinking a few times to make sure the reaction was genuine. 

“No, I don’t think we need to fight or anything,” Techno eventually said. “I’m glad you’re actually down.”

“For sure,” he said casually, chuckling a bit as he tried to calm his racing heart. “I mean, as long as you’re cool with me being in your ears more.”

There was a comfortable silence shared between the two for a little bit, only to be interrupted by a comment that sent Dream’s mind spinning.

“Y’know,” the other man said slowly, almost as if he were trying to tiptoe around his own words as they came out. “You’re not as bad as I thought you were. I mean, when we first met, you really were kind of a dick so I kept my distance, but you’re a little less weird one-on-one. So… thanks for that I guess.”

Dream felt his heart leap into his throat and he nearly choked on air as he listened to what the other man had said to him. He clearly just meant that Dream was nicer than he came off as, but the almost-compliment set his mind spiraling as he tried to process. 

“Well you’re not so bad either,” he said cautiously, still trying to remain cool and collected. “A cocky, egocentric bitch? Yeah, but you’re not all bad.”

After a while of just chatting and trying to be friendly, Techno’s speech got a little more slurred as he tried to stay awake.

“You’re allowed to go to bed,” Dream said coolly. “I know I’m great and all, but you don’t need to be, like, pushing yourself like this.”

Techno hummed in agreement and got close to his mic for a moment and spoke.

“Well I guess I should probably go to bed,” Techno said, his tired voice rumbled in Dream’s skull. “G’night, green bitch.”

The familiar sound of somebody disconnecting from a call rang in his ears and he found himself now alone in the voice chat.

As much as Dream wanted to rest, he had too much on his mind to try and sleep it off this time..

“What the fuck…” he quietly mutter to himself, trying to figure out what the fuck was making him this soft.

He stood up quickly from his desk and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water for himself, hoping that maybe the cool beverage would bring with it some clarity. He gulped down the water quickly and furrowed his eyebrows. The more he stayed around the other man, the more pieces of the puzzle started to not make sense. He was always happy to try and sort through tough problems, but even this felt a little too tough for him.

He managed to sleep semi-decently that night, somehow, but waking up didn’t seem to solve any of his confusion. He took the day off and managed to do some basic household upkeep, mostly laundry and dishes, but not even those mindless tasks were able to help him clear his head. 

Why was this bothering him so much?

Dream took the rest of the day to edit some of the videos he had backlogged. It wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but at least it would keep him distracted from his own thoughts. He managed to get through a couple of videos before his mind wandered back to the confusion he was starting to experience.

“Well,” he said quietly to himself, taking this as a sign to actually think about his situation properly. “Alright then.”

Dream leaned back into his comfortable chair and pondered on his conversation with the other man from the night before.

Damon and Pythias.

That was the thing that started it all off. The conversation about the mythic figures being good friends. Techno was relatively vague about what his chat was saying at the time, but the idea of being compared to the Greek besties made him feel a little bit uneasy. 

He continues to mindlessly edit, adding some text boxes, some music transitions, and cutting places that were particularly long, but the names of the two Greeks kept intruding his mind.

Damon and Pythias.

With a heavy sign, Dream gave into his own curiosity and pulled up a new tab to start some more research on the two men. He knew the basics -- two men, friends, were so willing to sacrifice for the other that it impressed a king enough to let them go-- but there had to be something he was missing. 

He typed in the names of the characters, butchering them terribly, and started his adventure to look a little more deeply into the two figures. He found a lot of information about the significance that they played in the view of what the platonic ideal for true trust and loyalty was, how the death of Dionysius is still greatly disputed amongst professionals and historians, and how obscure of a reference it truly was.

Did people really think that he and Techno were that close?

Dream felt his stomach do another flip in his abdomen and he quickly cleared the thought from his mind. No. Nope. No fucking way. He was not close to Technoblade and he never intended to be. Just because the interactions were growing less tense didn’t mean that-

Dream stopped himself in mid-thought and took a deep breath. If he needed to chill out and not worry about what other people said about his relationship with anybody. Who cared if they were close or not. It was nobody’s business but his and Techno’s how close they were.

 _But how close are you really?_ the little voice in the back of his head questioned.

Dream quickly shook his head, hoping to shake the thought out of his mind as he did so, and looked out the window onto his back lawn.

Maybe it was time to touch some fucking grass.

He stood up from his chair and went towards the sliding glass door, pulling off his socks and walking into the still damp grass. He tried to focus on all the textures he was feeling and decided to keep count of them in his mind.

Sharp. Long. Itchy. Bugs. Wet. 

He squatted down and let his fingers touch the course blades of prickly grass and allowed himself a few cycles of breath to clear his head. 

Damp. Thick. Scratchy. Technoblade. Green.

He narrowed his eyes at the grass and quickly pulled a blade out to examine it closer, hoping that the singular blade would bestow some kind of information to him, but it only mocked him by wiggling carefree in the gentle breeze of the Florida morning.

Dream flicked the blade of grass into the sea of it’s siblings and decided that maybe sitting down would help him decipher the confusion he was experiencing, taking a few more deep breaths before eventually laying fully on his back and closing his eyes.

He turned his attention to the way the sun felt on his face, hoping that this would change the outcome.

Warm. Stinging. Laughter. Hot. Technoblade.

Dream sat up quickly and pursed his lips together tightly, stopping the train of thought as quickly as he could manage. So much for touching grass like the internet told him to do.

He pulled his knees up to his chest and tried to remain cool and collected under the already hot sun. What the fuck was wrong with him? Was he really that starved for genuine interactions that he was spinning these friendly interactions into something… more?

He glared at the fence in his backyard, silently interrogating it and hoping for answers. Unfortunately, much like his interaction with the blade of grass from earlier, his efforts were fruitless and his questions and concerns were still unanswered.

He reluctantly stood and brushed the grass off his shorts, smacking a few mosquitoes in the process for good measure, and tried to backtrack into another place where he’d felt like this. It must have been ages ago.

He crossed his arms loosely in front of his chest as he walked back inside the house, closing the sliding door with his hip, and tried to recall the ancient memory that had been buried deep in his long term memory.

Scratchy, stinging, and itchy.

He thought about the grass and couldn’t help but remember some obscure core memory of playing on the playground in his youth. Chasing the boys around the playground, scraping his knees and throwing rocks at girls.

Hot, warm laughter.

He continued clunking through the memory, and slowly remembered holding hands with some random kid on the playground who was his friend, conquering the sandbox Pokémon and silly bands trading ring, protecting the red slide from the little kids, and being put in timeout with that kid, but it was all worth it. Why was it all worth it?

He remembered being willing to do anything to get that stupid kid to laugh or to get a hug. He put up with getting in trouble at recess, having to apologize in place of that boy, and even sitting in time out with that friend when they were separated.

The cogs were turning slowly, but some things started to fit into place.

The scratchy, stinging, and itchy was inseparable from the hot, warm laughter. It was admiration, he’d been told by teachers and his parents, but this felt different even to his own eight year old mind. This was a bond that made him feel itchy, uncomfortable, and uneasy, but at the same time he didn’t want to lose it.

Like Techno.

Upon making the connection, he felt his stomach land a perfect ollie in his abdomen and his eyes widened. His mind was a glow stick being shaken, shattering and luminous, entirely too forceful, and a sickly shade of neon green.

He didn’t want to remember this, but it was already too late to go back.

He quickly went over to his desk and pulled up some messages between himself and Techno, trying to see if he could replicate the feeling. If he couldn’t replicate the feeling, he knew it had to be something else. He quickly pulled up some dm’s between himself and Technoblade and sent a simple message.

_‘wanna record something not smp related tomorrow ? ’_

He waited with bated breath by the computer and waited for the bastard to respond. Lucky for him, Techno was usually pretty quick despite the time zone difference. 

_“Sure. I think Fundy made a new game mode or something. What are you feeling?”_

Dream’s heart shuttered with delight at the accepting of his offer, but it was quickly followed by the heavy dread in the pit of his stomach.

He closed his eyes and shoved the heels of his palms into his eye sockets, groaning as he flopped into his chair.

“Oh you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

Now was not the fucking time to get a crush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damon and Pythias is a legend in Greek historic writing illustrating the Pythagorean ideal of friendship where a pair of friends who came to signify the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of a friend. Dionysius I of Syracuse, amazed by the love and trust in their friendship, frees them both. 
> 
> ~~~~~
> 
> Okay! I'm feeling pretty good about this now! Thanks for reading and I love to hear from you guys :)


	3. Orpheus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream talks to Sapnap vaguely about feelings for… someone… and tries to understand why he might be feeling this way towards Techno. He learns that sometimes a great disdain or hatred can actually be a cover up for true romantic feelings. Oh fuck.

Dream was truly stuck at this point. He wanted to join games with Techno, but he didn’t trust what he would be able to keep in, so, in response, he just took a break from playing with him for a while. Techno would ask him if he had any availability and Dream would make up some excuse to avoid it.

Sometimes, it was that he had to go out and buy groceries, sometimes it was that he had another thing planned for that day already, but it was almost always a lie.

On one particular day, Dream found himself playing a “quick” manhunt with George, Sapnap, and Badboyhalo. It was something that they had scheduled weeks ago and it was honestly looking pretty close, all things considered. 

Dream had gotten a pretty solid head start, but the others were quickly starting to catch up to him. Dream had laser focus on his possible paths, flipping into the third person view every now and then to make sure that he was able to go get more wood without being killed instantly. Dream was grateful that his friends were loud and annoying enough to keep his mind away from his confusing feelings. 

It was nice to experience some normalcy when things felt so out of control.

“Oh Dreeeeeeam!” George sang in his usual taunting way. “Where are youuu!”

Dream quickly grabbed his materials and went into the Nether portal he’d managed to set up quickly. The achievement came up, causing the three others to shout and complain in his ears, and he managed to get his way into a proper fortress not long after. 

He just knew people would comment about his “luck” but that was honestly one of the best parts. He secretly loved to watch people try to fathom how Dream managed to get this lucky. A true guilty pleasure.

Regardless of this, he quickly found a blaze spawner and managed to get a few blaze rods before deciding to go off and find another fortress.

“There!” he heard Sapnap call out. “I see his portal! Go go go!”

Dream smirked and continued to run past the first fortress he saw and hopefully off to another one. He was on the move and he wasn’t about to stop now.

Soon, he saw the achievements roll in that the others had rolled into the Nether with him and he grit his teeth. They were moving a lot faster than they usually did. 

Dream took his hand off his mouse for a moment and shook out his wrist. He wasn’t in pain or anything, but he did feel his wrist getting tight. Nothing that a good, solid shake out wouldn’t fix, but he was still trying to stay alive.

As much as Dream loved playing casually, his own competitive nature would really be the death of him. He loved to win. He loved to outplay, outsmart, and outperform the people he was up against, whatever the cost would be. Sure it made him a sore loser, but the emotional reward for winning would send his ego and happiness through the roof.

Which was part of the reason why the whole Techno situation made him so uncomfortable.

He didn’t know how to “win” in this situation. No matter which way he looked at it, he found himself running into another wall. 

Just tell him? Nope. That would ruin the friendship and would have taken death over a confession any day.

Keep it buried deep down until he died? No way. All that would do was leave him miserable. 

Tell somebody else about it?

Dream hesitated on that option for a moment. As long as he kept it discrete, he might be able to get some help. He didn’t want to tell anybody about this, but if he never said any names…

Dream was snapped back to reality upon hearing another screech from the other side of the call courtesy of George.

“Guys I’m gonna die!!” He cried, motivating Dream to laugh at his friend’s despair.

“That’s what you get!” Dream retorted. “Just leave me be!”

“No way that’s happening,” Sapnap said coolly in his ears.

“Yeah!” Bad chimed in. “We’re gonna get you, you muffinhead!”

Dream rolled his eyes but continued to scan for a new fortress. 

After a few minutes of sprinting around and listening to the other three go back and forth, he saw the achievement pop up indicating that they had found the fortress.

“No, what?!” Dream said quickly, knowing damn well he wasn’t even close to that one but still trying to keep them distracted as they continued to look in the since abandoned fortress.

It thankfully didn’t take too long for Dream to find a new fortress and he quickly started mining into it.

As he sprinted down the halls of the fortress, his mind began to wander without his permission.

He really wanted nothing more for than these terrible, ugly feelings to pass and leave him alone. He’d been running from them all week and trying to keep that from the people he loved was honestly exhausting. The idea that he might have been bisexual or gay or pan or whatever didn’t bother him as much as the person who was making him realize these feelings. 

He really just wanted it to be over and done with.

After getting the Blaze rods he needed, he quickly made his way to some piglins and bartered all the gold he had. He managed to get enough obsidian for another portal and just under the amount of ender pearls he needed before he decided that he needed to get out of there.

“Dream where are you even?” Bad questioned, a statement echoed by the other two.

Dream laughed happily and lit the nether portal, going through happily and quickly crafting some eyes of ender after he was back in the overworld.

“I’ll never tell,” he chirped, cackling as he threw his first pearl and it went flying nearly directly in front of him. This was going to be easy.

“He’s out of the Nether,” Sapnap said quickly, to which Dream let out another wheeze as he followed the directions of his pearl.

“What?!” George shrieked. “Literally how!?”

“He built another portal, idiot!” Sapnap quipped.

There was a wall of wild accusations thrown at Dream and all he could do was cackle in response.

“You guys are so stupid, oh my god!” Dream cheered. “I’m gonna wiiin!”

While the three continued to argue with each other, Dream followed the directions the eye was giving him.

Admittedly, it took him a lot longer than he was expecting to get to where he needed to go, but once he was in, he had a pretty substantial lead on the other three. It was a good day to be Dream.

Dream quickly took out the end crystal towers with some snowballs he’d collected at spawn and quickly went to work attacking the dragon, unwilling to lose.

He saw the advancements made by the others upon entering the end fortress and, eventually, the End itself. 

“How is it already at half health?” George questioned wildly. 

“Stop standing there we need to get him!” Sapnap barked, to which the other two men agreed and made their way to the main island to fight Dream. Unfortunately for them, Dream was on a roll and he wasn’t about to be stopped easily.

Dream had managed to get some string from an abandoned mineshaft and had made beds to try and kill the dragon faster. He was under the dragon when the three got to the main island and he quickly started spamming beds.

“No!” The three cried, running over as quickly as their little characters could manage to. When they got close, Dream set down the final bed and threw an ender pearl to guarantee his getaway. He hit the bed one last time and was promptly teleported away. He watched the dragon fling the other three away and he started loosing a few arrows towards the dragon, running circles around the island to dodge pop shots from the hunters chasing him around. He looked at the Dragon’s health bar and grinned. 

It was low.

“It’s been a pleasure, boys!” Dream sang while releasing the final killing arrow, listening to the chorus of “No!” ‘s from the others. The arrow flew straight and true to the target and, with a satisfying crackle, the Ender Dragon died.

Dream leaped to his feet and whooped a few times victoriously, feeling all the blood rush to his head and unable to help the wild grin on his face as he celebrated his victory.

When Dream eventually sat back down and saw that Bad had killed him out of spite, but that didn’t matter.

He already won.

It was almost enough joy to make him forget that he was going through some serious emotional turmoil.

Woop, never mind there it was again.

His bright smile dimmed slightly as the previous heaviness in his mind returned.

“That was a good one,” Dream commented, happy to have finally won. “Holy shit you guys almost had me.”

“Shut up, Dream,” George said bitterly. “You should have died way earlier! We had you!”

George was almost as competitive as Dream was, but he somehow managed to be a relatively worse sport than Dream was after losing. 

_Maybe I should talk to George about it?_ He thought to himself.

As soon as the thought entered his mind, he quickly shook it out. He and George had a history. 

It was pretty early on in their friendship where George confessed feelings for the other man and Dream had denied him, not wanting to strain their friendship. Things were tense for a few months, but they’d eventually managed to get friendly again after some serious conversation and talking through what the other was feeling. He was glad it all worked out, but it was still a bit touchy.

Yeah, George was not an option here.

“Ugh,” Bad groaned, clearly irritated but not nearly as much as George. “How do you always pull it off right at the end?”

 _Bad?_ he thought, but quickly rejected the idea.

A conversation like the one he wanted to have would either end in Bad accidentally trying to pressure him into coming out or he would push a little further than Dream was currently willing to go. It wasn’t a judgement on Bad, but Dream knew his enthusiasm could really get the better of him sometimes.

“It’s really fine, guys,” Sapnap chimed in. “We’ll just have to kick his ass in the rematch of the rematch’s Manhunt rematch.”

Dream laughed a bit at the slight dig at his video titles and leaned back in his chair.

“You guys know they’re fun to do,” he said happily. “I can’t help that I don’t want to stop making them and my viewers want to keep seeing them.”

He listened to the chatter about what happened and took the time to try and calm down.

 _Sapnap?_ his brain questioned finally. 

Dream’s eyebrows furrowed and he tried to think through any reason why it’d be a bad idea to ask Sapnap. They’d been friends for a long time before this and not much could really end that. The only negative thing would be that Sapnap was secretly some kind of homophobe or something, which he seriously doubted. 

_Okay, so Sapnap then._ he decided. Now he could only hope that Sapnap would be willing to help him.

He listened in for a while, but eventually decided that maybe it would be best for him to speak up now before they got to derailed.

“Hey, Sapnap,” he said casually, hoping his voice wasn’t too shaky or anything. “Could we talk for a sec after everybody gets off?”

“Sure,” Sapnap responded quickly. “Everything okay?”

Dream laughed awkwardly and shifted in his seat. How the fuck was he supposed to describe that he’d developed gross and ugly feelings for one of their mutual friends?

“Say less,” Sapnap said, obviously hearing something in his voice that the others hadn’t quite seen yet. “Just stay on and we can talk about whatever you want.”

Dream hummed in confirmation and quietly let himself come down from his high of winning. He wanted to make sure that he would be in a good mental place to be able to talk about his situation, so it was important to get his heart rate down and his head clear.

It took a little while before the other two got off the call, but it was soon just Sapnap and Dream. 

“So,” Sapnap said slowly. “What’s going on?”

Dream hesitated for a moment and sighed heavily. 

_Be vague,_ he reminded himself. _You don’t need to tell him everything. Just enough to get the help._

“I don’t know, Nick,” he said honestly. “I’m just… feeling things.”

“Gross,” Sapnap said in agreement. “Wanna elaborate a bit, man?”

Dream took a moment to regain his composure resting his head in his hands, using his elbows to properly prop himself up. How was he even going to go about it? He wasn’t exactly comfortable saying names of anybody and he was pretty sure that Sapnap wouldn’t ask unless he was prompted to ask, so… vague it was then.

“There’s a person,” he started slowly, ignoring Sapnap’s “Obviously.” comment. “And I didn’t like h- them. But then I… did? It was like, y’know-- I think I was-- yeah like I didn’t want to so, like, it’s probably something that’ll pass? Right?”

Sapnap sat quietly for a bit and Dream felt his mouth go dry as he waited for some kind of response. After a few moments of consideration, Sapnap spoke up again.

“So,” he said carefully. “You have a crush?”

Dream felt the blood rush to his cheeks and he scoffed.

“When you say it like that, it sounds dumb,” Dream grumbled in response. “But I guess so.”

There was another agonizing pause before Sapnap erupted into laughter. Dream could basically feel his face going red as he listened to the other man’s laughter basically smack him in the face.

“If I wanted to be laughed at, I would have called Tommy!” he barked, hoping that anger would successfully cover his embarrassment. “Stop laughing at me!”

“Sorry!” Sapnap chirped, trying to stifle his giggles. “I just wasn’t expecting this kind of talk! I was waiting for, like, ‘I need you to take a picture down because it showed my last name’ or maybe a ‘Why did you do that in the stream the other day?’ But _this_ is fantastic, Clay!”

Dream huffed once more and furrowed his eyebrows. He already hated this.

“It’s whatever,” Dream grumbled, clearing his throat and managing to stay calm. “Just tell me what to do. I haven’t had a crush since, like, elementary school.”

“Well what’s he like?” Sapnap questioned, sending a jolt of electricity down Dream’s spine.

“How--” he started uncomfortably, but Sapnap was quick to interrupt him. 

“Dude, I know you’re not straight,” Sapnap said casually. “At least not, like, fully. What are you, bi?”

Dream cleared his throat uncomfortably and rubbed the back of his neck, the coolness of his fingers instantly calling the fire in his face.

“Well that’s part of it,” Dream said slowly. “I’m still kinda working through that one?”

Dream could hear Sapnap drop something-- maybe a water bottle?-- and scrambling back closer towards his desk.

“Holy shit I’m so sorry,” he said quickly. “I thought you were already, like… cool with it?”

Dream chuckled a bit to himself and closed his eyes, shaking his head and pressing the heels of his palms into his closed eyelids. This was going terribly already.

“It’s fine,” he said quietly. “Just… I don’t know why this sucks so bad.”

Sapnap sighed heavily on the other side of the call and Dream could hear the creaking of the other man’s chair as he adjusted. 

“Well,” the other man said slowly. “Just… tell me about him and then we can talk about what to do? How does that sound?”

Dream hummed in agreement and his mind went to Technoblade. He didn’t have a proper visual representation of the other man, but what he did know was how the man made him feel.

“Well,” he started slowly, reminding himself to be vague enough to not give himself away as being a Techno simp. “He’s funny, but in a weird way. Like, he’s got his own kind of humor that either resonates or super doesn’t. He’s pretty bad with people but in an endearing way, not a serial killer way. He’s really competitive, almost as much as me, and I think that’s why it took me so long to realize that I liked him. I don’t know. That’s probably stupid.”

Sapnap listened to the description of the other man’s romantic interest and laughed a bit.

“It’s not stupid,” he assured. “What does he look like?”

Dream hesitated and bit his lip.

“I don’t really know?” he said honestly. “I think he has brown hair? I’m trying to remember what he’s said about that.”

Sapnap paused and Dream could almost feel the judgement from the other side of the call.

“Dude, this sounds like a catfish,” the other man said bluntly. “Funny, nice, and you don’t know what he looks like? This is textbook catfishing.”

“I know he’s not!” Dream said quickly, nearly defensively if he were being honest with himself. “He… we’ve talked over the phone and stuff! I mean, he doesn’t know what I look like either, so we’re even!”

Sapnap hummed in understanding and left space for a thoughtful beat.

“So what’s your question?” He asked, sounding a tad confused. “I mean, if you like this guy, go for it. What’s the harm?”

Dream swallowed thickly and took a shaky breath. Just go for it? That would probably be the dumbest thing he’d ever done if he did that. He was just starting to have a positive relationship with Techno and if this went bad, he’d still have to work with him on other things. From what Techno had told him, his viewers really enjoyed the energy they had together. This wouldn’t be a George situation where they could bounce back as friends. If it went bad, his relationship with Techno might as well have been over.

But he couldn’t tell Sapnap that. Not yet at least.

“I guess I’m just confused because I didn’t feel like this before,” he said honestly. “Like, I used to hate the guy and now… now I’m like this! I don’t know, dude. I’m just confused.”

“I mean,” Sapnap responded carefully. “Y’know when you’d throw things at girls in elementary school when you liked them? Maybe it’s like that?”

Dream raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

“I don’t follow,” Dream responded honestly.

He heard an exasperated sigh come from the other man and shifting as Sapnap got closer to his mic.

“Look,” Sapnap said carefully. “Sometimes, when you like somebody, your brain just nope’s out of there and convinces you that you hate the person for some reason. Maybe your brain was trying to protect you for some reason. I mean, if you’re not out, that could have something to do with it.”

Dream pondered on this possibility and pursed his lips. He hadn’t properly thought about the possibility that this was just his brain crossing wires. He honestly didn’t think it would have to be something he would _need_ to worry about.

Dream sighed heavily and folded his arms on his desk, creating a perfect little bicep and forearm pillow for him to rest his head in.

“This is so stupid,” he muttered into his arms. “I seriously thought I was done with these types of crushes.”

Sapnap chuckled sadly on the other side of the call.

“Yeah, you’re never really done,” he said kindly. “It just gets easier.”

Dream grumbled a bit, but he eventually sat up properly and stared at his now blank screen. The video was still fully importing and he watched the little bar slowly fill up.

“Well,” he said quietly. “I’m not sure how much that actually helped, but it was nice to just say it to somebody.

“I can only imagine,” Sapnap agreed. “I haven’t had a proper crush in a while, but I know the feeling. Do you know what you want to do about it?”

Dream sighed and buzzed his lips, trying to sort out the new information in his brain. He had to do something, but he wasn’t exactly sure how he was going to go about it. The feelings were still a little too fresh to do much with them, but he knew that something had to be done.

Just not yet.

“Hey, Nick?” Dream said cautiously, not answering his question and only continuing once he received a hum of acknowledgement from the other man. “Could you… not… say anything? I’m still not sure if I’m going to act on this thing or not and I’m still sorting through the whole… gay… thing. So, could we just keep it between us?”

“Oh my god, of course dude,” Sapnap said quickly. “Yeah, this stays between us! If you want to tell anybody, let me know and I’ll have your back, but not yet. Take your time and get comfortable with yourself first. Just chill out and wait till you feel safe.”

Dream raised an eyebrow and snickered a bit.

“You don’t have to baby me or anything,” he quipped. “I’m just going through a new thing. No need to treat me any different. I’m still the same superior manhunt player I always have been.” 

“Oh my god, you barely made it today!”

The two continued to go back and forth for a bit longer before they eventually hung up. Dream smiled to himself and, once the video was fully on his computer, he renamed the video file and shut his computer down for the night.

He walked into his bathroom feeling weirdly lighter, having at least told somebody about the confusion he was feeling. It wasn’t exactly the confirmation he wanted, but it was still nice to have somebody say that he wasn’t going crazy.

He walked into the bathroom and started to prepare for the night, brushing his teeth as he started up the shower and waited for the icy water to run a little warmer.

He examined himself in the mirror for a second and wondered if Techno would even find him attractive. In his experience, he’d always viewed himself as perfectly average. 

His permanently messy dirty blonde hair, which now had a fun indent from where his headphones were, was perfectly average, the small dark circles under his dark green, bordering hazel, eyes catching the light in a way that made him look a lot more like he hadn’t slept since the 1800’s was relatively average, and even his body was, again, only slightly above average in his own personal opinion.

Playing sports in high school would do that to you.

He scanned himself once more and furrowed his eyebrows. He hoped that nobody’s expectation for his appearance was too high, as he didn’t want to disappoint. He wasn’t exactly ready to show his appearance to the world, but a few people would be nice.

Techno would be nice.

Dream squeezed his eyes shut and groaned loudly.

“Not the time,” he chastised himself as he finished his nighttime routine.

Upon finishing his shower, brushing his teeth, and feeding Patches, he saw a notification on his phone. It was a mention from Technoblade.

Great.

_“Hey @dream when are we recording? You said you wanted to record and you haven’t said anything since, asshole. This is a call out.”_

Dream couldn’t help but smile at the dumb tweet and responded quickly.

_“Chill bro I’ve been busy how’s Saturday. 4pm est?”_

Dream smiled to himself as he put his phone down, a warm feeling entering his chest as he thought about being able to interact with Technoblade again.

He paused for a moment and thought about his reaction to just a notification. Smiling, thinking about the next interaction, daydreaming about what they would do.

It felt a little silly to call Techno his Eurydice, but damn it fit.

He found himself thinking about pushing back other outings and interactions just to pull Techno back to the surface with him. He just hoped that he wouldn’t be tempted to turn around and ruin it all.

He tossed his phone onto a charger and rolled onto his bed, laying on his back and watching the ceiling as he tried to think clearly. He had Techno on the brain and he would honestly rather have anything else running laps around his thoughts. After his conversation with Sapnap and being basically told he had permission to feel the way he did, his brain took that and ran.

He was so totally screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Orpheus is a character that joined the expedition of the Argonauts, saving them from the music of the Sirens by playing his own, more powerful music. On his return, he married Eurydice, who was soon killed by a snakebite. Overcome with grief, Orpheus ventured himself to the land of the dead to attempt to bring Eurydice back to life and eventually failed when he broke the one rule and looked behind him to make sure she was following him back to the realm of the living. His own doubt was the thing that costed him the love of his life. 
> 
> ~~~~
> 
> Thank you all for your kind words and great interaction! I try to respond to comments whenever I can! I plan on switching to one update a week now that I have stuff planned out, but I wanted to put out some chapters pretty early just to keep people interested. Thanks again and be on the lookout for the next chapter! <3


	4. Odysseus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno offers to house Dream and Sapnap for an upcoming Minecraft-related event. Dream initially refuses, knowing that he won’t be going to any events and not wanting to be housed by somebody he MIGHT have a crush on, but Sapnap convinces him. The two stay together for a bit in Houston and then they fly together to San Francisco to meet up with Techno in an air bnb.
> 
> (Alternate Title: Florida Man Travels a Lot)

After his chat with Sapnap from about a week previous, Dream found himself slowly easing back into normal conversation with Technoblade again. He accepted a few of Techno’s offers to be apart of dumb little games, to help him trick some of his friends, and even to help him sort out some plot things for the SMP that was going on.

At the moment, things were going pretty good.

Dream woke up one morning with a few texts from Techno. It wasn’t that out of the ordinary, as they were talking the night previous about what all Dream had done to manipulate the younger server members, specifically Ranboo and Tommy, so he just assumed that it was going to be something about that. He decided that his response could wait another hour and he decided to get up and get ready for his day.

He watched as Patches weaved between his legs, clearly hungry and mewing for attention, and all he could do was smile for a moment and give her a few affectionate head rubs.

“Somebody’s needy,” he stated playfully, watching as she head-butted his hand and purred loudly. “C’mon then. You know where food is.” 

Patches went into the kitchen and jumped on the counter to paw at one of the higher cabinets, but Dream quickly picked her up and placed her back on the ground.

“You know better,” he scolded her. “Counters are not for cats.” The two stared at each other and Dream was met with an indifferent meow from the sweet cat. Dream smiled a bit and gave her a small little head rub.

He couldn’t stay frustrated for too long when it came to Patches.

Dream stood up with a tired sigh and started to make his sweet girl some breakfast. Yeah, she was a bit spoiled, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. She was a social little girl and he’d honestly love nothing more than to spend all day just dotting on his feline companion.

After preparing her food and setting it down, he went to the fridge to make something resembling a breakfast to quiet his rumbling stomach. Breakfast was one of those weird things that he loved, but it was always entirely too much effort to make in the morning. He eventually decided on just some toast and an egg. Something simple and easy.

He decided that he would go to the text from Techno in a minute and looked through some of the more interesting things first, Twitter and Instagram mainly. He was already on a streak of ignoring the guy, so why mess up his consistency?

After scrolling and seeing mostly nothing, his attention was pulled away to a text from Sapnap. He raised an eyebrow at the fact that his friend was texting him so early. The time difference was only an hour, but he knew that Sapnap had just finished his midterms. He should have been catching up on his lost sleep at eight in the morning, shouldn’t he? Ignoring his own confusion, he opened the text 

_“Did Techno text you?”_ Sapnap had typed. 

Dream was reminded that Techno had texted him that morning and his eyebrows furrowed in concern. If Techno had texted Dream and Sapnap, something might have actually been wrong.

_“yeah i haven’t looked tho”_

Almost as soon as he sent the text he saw a response from the other man.

_“DUDE LOOK!!! LIKE NOW!”_

Dream rolled his eyes and reluctantly opened the texts he’d received.

_“Hey were you and Sapnap planning on going to the upcoming convention? Because it’s really close to where I live and the people I was going with bailed. Interested in splitting the cost and going on an adventure?”_

Dream’s thumbs danced over the keyboard, a small flutter in his chest reminding him of why this was a hard call to make. 

He wasn’t planning on going to anything really. He wasn’t exactly prepared to do anything in public quite yet, still worrying that he wouldn’t be what people expected him to be. He would have loved to go and be a part of these creator events, but, since he’d grown so quickly, the reality of not living up to everybody’s mental image of his appearance weighed in his stomach like summer heat on asphalt.

Yeah, he wasn’t ready.

Dream flipped back to his text conversation with Sapnap and typed out a response.

_“yeah i’m not going. you can go but i’m not ready yet.”_

He quickly saw the text response bubble from the other man appear

_“Dude, I’m sure he doesn’t expect you to come out and do shit. He was probably just being nice. This might be an olive branch or something since you two are starting to get along.”_

Dream pondered on that possibility for a moment and screwed his face into one of bitter confliction. On one hand, he wanted to meet the guy and get to know him and all that other friendly stuff, but he also worried that he wouldn’t live up to the expectation that Techno probably had of him in his head.

His thumbs continued to dance over the dim LCD screen on his phone, waltzing with every pixel as he tried to get a response together and bowing occasionally as he changed his mind on what to even say. At least with texting, he had some time to think about it instead of being forced to answer something like this on the spot.

This particular convention was a pretty popular one for sure, so hotels and stuff would be a little difficult to get if you hadn’t prepared in advance. This was a generous offer, even if he were going to be going and participating in the event. He wasn’t even going to be going and meeting people and he 

He slowly typed out a response and hit send after a few seconds of hesitation.

_“fine. u cool if i fly to u first ?”_

Dream couldn’t help the sharp exhale as he saw a wall of happy texts from the other man, and flipped to the text from Techno.

He typed out a response and just stared at it for a moment.

 _Why does this feel like middle school all over again?_ he questioned to himself quietly. 

It wasn’t like Techno was asking him to come over alone, so why was his heart in his throat? Why were his hands sweating so much when it came to sending a response? Why did this feel so life or death?

After a small internal freakout, he hit send and basically threw his phone on the counter, startling Patches so hard she ran out of the room, abandoning her breakfast. 

_"sure"_

And then he waited.

He waited for what felt like an eternity. A three hour time difference wasn’t a lot, but god it felt miserable just waiting by the phone like some World War II housewife waiting to hear news of her husband. He felt dread form in his stomach the more the day pressed on and actually started to worry that he’d said something wrong.

However, the waiting didn’t last too long.

At around one in the afternoon, he heard a default text tone and looked over at his still untouched phone. It mocked him from where he sat in his chair, pulling him away from his reading and sending his mind reeling into another fantasy world outside of his book.

He placed his book face-down next to him and stood slowly. Dream began his careful approach towards his device and picked it up like it was a live bomb.

He mentally prepared himself for the worst and opened his phone to look at the new message.

_“Great! See you and Sapnap in two weeks! I’ll send you guys the address when it gets closer. ”_

Dream blinked slowly and examined the message carefully. It wasn’t bad. He’d prepared himself for the worst, he’d reckoned with the fact that Techno was going to change his mind and say a polite “never mind” but that never happened. He followed through on what he said he was going to do. 

And he even seemed excited about it.

Dream quickly texted Sapnap and began to make plans to fly out to Texas to spend time with his friend.

Maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad as he thought it was.

Days passed slowly into weeks and he flew out to visit his Sapnap first. It was going to be a nice little buffer between meeting somebody he basically didn’t know, and he decided to make the most of it.

Throughout the two and a half hour flight, he managed to do some editing and actually managed to finish the book he had started the week prior. It almost felt like a vacation, if he was being honest, and it felt pretty deserved.

He didn’t realize how much he was actually working until he’s taken the time to just sit and enjoy his time. He’d been working on some content to post on his channel, just in case, and he hoped that it would be good enough to have done by the time he was at the convention.

The plane landed smoothly in George Bush Intercontinental Airport and managed to make his way to baggage claim with little to no interaction.

Thank god for big airports. 

He approached the baggage claim and felt a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as he saw his friend waiting patiently for his arrival. It would only be right to fuck with him a bit.

Dream approached casually and stood beside Sapnap for a moment, just watching the information as it passed on the screen. Sapnap had pulled his phone out and was checking to make sure he was at the right baggage claim for his friend. How sweet. It took everything in him to remain cool as he leaned down next to his friend’s ear.

“Huge fan of your work,” he whispered. “Can I get an autograph?”

Dream watched as Sapnap jumped out of his skin and the look of confusion went from relief to anger in a matter of seconds. Dream couldn’t help but wheeze and cackle as his friend punched him in the arm.

“Dude, what the fuck!” Sapnap cried, a smile creeping onto his face as he continued to look at his taller friend. “You scared the shit out of me!”

Dream apologized profusely, still giggling a bit as he spoke, and managed to get some actual greetings out as they waited for his baggage to come down the creaking conveyor belt. 

Once they got his bags, the two made their way to Sapnap’s car and started the short-ish drive to his apartment.

“How was the flight?” Sapnap said coolly, a smile on his face and his voice no longer distorted by a mic and headphones ringing crisp in the other man’s ears.

“Pretty good,” Dream answered honestly, reaching down and adjusting the car’s seat to accommodate for his much longer legs. “Little bit bumpy in the middle, but still good. I got to finish my book, which was nice.”

“God you really are a nerd,” Sapnap teased. “You can’t be doing all that nerd shit this week! You need to help me figure out what I need to do to get ready for this convention!”

Dream rolled his eyes and looked out the window, admiring the unfamiliar setting. It was nice to be in a new place. He could only hope he felt the same way about San Francisco when they got there.

“Why do you even want to go to something like that?” Dream questioned. “I mean, yeah, meeting fans is nice, but it just seems like a lot of work.”

Sapnap scoffed at his friend and rolled his eyes, smiling to himself as he focused on driving.

“It’s more than that,” the significantly more extroverted of the two chirped. “It’s the energy! Just, being around people who want you to do well and care about what you do and want to tell you is just so nice! Yeah, I mean, it’s a little stressful, but what’s so bad about that?”

Dream shrugged and leaned against the passenger seat and allowed a comfortable silence to occupy the space. This kind of space felt good. The journey was not too far out of his comfort zone, thankfully, and it would be a nice little springboard into the thing he was dreading most. His own little Trojan horse of comfort taking him into the roman camp of San Francisco.

Eh, it was a stretch of a metaphor, but he stood by it.

The week of just himself and Sapnap was an easy one. The two hung out, watched movies, went out places, and just generally enjoyed each other’s company. Being around each other was natural and there were very rarely moments of discomfort. It was nice to have somebody nearby to make a place feel less cold.

“You excited for San Francisco?” Sapnap asked casually, his attention still glued to the TV as he spoke to the other man.

Dream looked up from his book and pursed his lips. In all honesty, no he wasn’t. He had been dreading it every second they got closer to their flight. He didn’t know what to expect out of Techno and he was worried that he would disappoint. 

“Yeah,” he lied. “I’m sure you and Techno are gonna have a great time at the convention.”

Sapnap was quiet for a sec, and that quiet was only amplified when he paused his show and eyed Dream suspiciously.

“What?” Dream questioned, shifting uncomfortable and turning his eyes back to the page he was on. “I’m sure it’s going to be great.”

“Somehow, I think you’re not excited,” Sapnap stated plainly. “What’s up? Are you really thinking about bailing?”

Dream grit his teeth and put his book on the side table.

“I’m just worried,” he said honestly. “Like, what if this goes horribly wrong.”

Dream was thinking about Techno seeing him in person and having a negative response or, even worse, a neutral response to him being there. At least with negativity or anger, Dream could use that to hopefully switch it around into a positive. Neutral was just entirely too dangerous.

Sapnap, however, seemed to understand it entirely differently.

“Are you worried about getting exposed?” he questioned, a look of concern melting away the previous suspicion. “Ah, c’mon, man. Dave and I aren’t going to force you to come to the convention with us or anything. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

Dream allowed himself to sink into his chair a bit more and he couldn’t help but just accept Sapnap’s version of things.

“I just worry a lot,” he admitted, neither confirming or denying his friend’s incorrect but plausible deduction. “Plus, I’ve never really interacted with Tech-... Dave... outside of games and stuff.”

“Are you worried he won’t like you?” Sapnap questioned further, an almost gentle smile washing over his face as he saw Dream shrug. “Dude, he’ll like you just fine. I’m honestly more worried that you’ll try to fight him or something. I know you two have a history of getting into it.”

Dream scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“It’s not that bad anymore,” he said carefully. “We’re actually starting to get along and stuff.”

“Then what are you worried about?” Sapnap said cheerfully. “I mean, if he’s vibing and you’re vibing, then it’s good! No need to freak out!”

Dream hummed in agreement and scanned the page again to find where he left off, still concerned but not nearly as bad as he was before. 

Damn Sapnap and his never ending well of good advice.

The next few days were filled with casual adventures just around, Sapnap happy to show off his city. They explored a bunch of local places to eat, some random landmarks, and eventually landed at a place that Sapnap was calling the Water Wall.

Dream looked up in awe at the absolutely massive structure and couldn’t help but feel small next to it. Standing in the center, hearing the water rush around him and echo against the floor was overwhelming in the best way, he felt like his soul was rattling around in his chest and trying to join this place’s beauty.

“This is beautiful,” he said quietly, his words most likely being covered up by the sound of the man-made waterfall. “Holy shit and you see this all the time?”

Sapnap rolled his eyes and smiled.

“Pretty much,” he answered honestly. “It’s pretty much the centerpiece for the Uptown District. Thought you’d appreciate it.”

Dream was not a religious man, but something about this place felt sacred. The cool water droplets landing on his exposed skin, the white noise of gravity pulling the water down onto the stones below, and the way the high walls eclipsed some of the afternoon light was starting to make him feel a particular way. He closed his eyes for a moment and allowed the white noise to wash over his anxieties about the following week.

“Just let it all work out,” he said under his breath, almost like a small prayer to the imposing walls. The sixty-four foot incline rewarded his request with another cool wave of misty wind cupping his cheeks and running through his hair. Dream allowed his head to drop for a moment and he felt an overwhelming sense of calm for the first time in a long time.

Sapnap looked up at his friend and shoved him a bit, forcing Dream to snap back to reality.

“It’s pretty cool,” the shorter of the two said softly. “People love this place. It’s really nice in the summer when it’s really hot. The mist really cools you off. Plus, it’s a really nice place to just sit and think.”

Dream nodded in agreement, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at his friend. 

“We should probably get back and pack, yeah?” 

The two spent the rest of the day packing, chatting, and sorting out a schedule to tentatively follow. Sapnap’s goal was to meet as many people as possible and Dream was actually pretty good at getting a schedule planned.

He sat with Sapnap as he tweeted about being at the convention that day, watching people excitedly respond to his friend’s tweet and actually decided to add in by adding in a comment about being excited for their flight tomorrow. 

“Dude, you’re sending them into a frenzy,” Sanpap said, amused. “They’re asking if you’re going to be there.”

Dream smiled to himself and shrugged. 

“It’s kinda funny,” he retorted, a grin spreading across his face. “I mean, they probably know that I’m going to be in the area just because I’m not streaming or anything for two weeks. Now they just have a way to place me.”

The two spend their final night before their flight staging their bags by the door and making sure their tickets were in order, just making sure that they would be ready to go.

“Did Techno send you the address?” Sapnap questioned, closing his laptop and putting it into his bag. 

To be completely honest, Dream hadn’t thought about Technoblade much at all that day. He had been so focused on making sure that Sapnap was able to get his stuff together, that he hadn’t really had time to think about his unfortunate crush.

“I dunno,” he answered honestly. “Let me check.”

Dream pulled out his phone and, lo and behold, there was a text from the man in question.

_“Hey! Here’s the address of the place. I can get you guys the Uber for when the plane lands. What’s your landing time?”_

Right after the message, there was an address to a nice looking place. It looked like they’d all be able to have their own room and an extra for recording things.

“He sent the address,” Dream said quickly. “What time do the tickets say we’re landing?"

Dream continued to look at his phone as Sapnap pulled up his own device to double check the tickets.

“Looks like around noon?” Sapnap responded. “Is he gonna pick us up?”

Dream shook his head and typed in his response as he answered Sapnap’s question.

“He said he’d get us an Uber,” he said calmly. “Probably just wants to make sure he knows when to be ready for us.”

Sapnap hummed in response and went back to mindlessly scrolling through whatever he was reading. 

Dream, on the other hand, stared at his response before sending his response.

_“thanks. we’re landing at noon ish. see you tomorrow”_

He knew his texting game was dry as shit, but Techno’s wasn’t much better all things considered so he felt a little better about it. He wanted to remain as casual as possible, not wanting to make the other man uncomfortable, but he didn’t want Techno to forget him or anything.

It really was an intense tightrope he was walking on. 

The two retired for the night and, bright and early, woke up the next morning to get on a plane to an unfamiliar city.

The drive to the airport was quiet, mostly because the two boys were tired, but the looming dread about the upcoming interaction was resting heavy in Dream’s mind.

Getting through TSA was easy and the boys just managed to get their bags checked and get to their terminal with about 15 minutes to spare. 

“I’m glad it’s not super busy,” Sapnap said cheerfully. “I honestly thought there’d be more people here.”

Dream rolled his eyes and a yawn bubbled past his lips. 

“It’s literally seven in the morning,” he said tiredly. “No sane person gets a flight this early.”

The two bickered lightheartedly for a while, but it was soon time to board their flight. They made their way onto the horrifying metal sky bird and strapped in, thankfully next to each other.

The next five and a half hours were a miserable combination of nerves and trying to stay distracted by something. Anything. The closer they got to their destination, the more he started to think of different scenarios of how things could go wrong.

There was a significantly large patch of turbulence during the flight that quite literally shook him out of his own head. 

He sighed heavily and closed his eyes, trying to remind himself to relax.

 _He’s not gonna hate me,_ he reassured himself. _I’m just worried._

He forced his mind to go back to how he felt at the water walls the day prior and remembered as much as he could, trying to get himself back into that state of relaxation and calm he felt. He remembered the white noise it created, the cool breeze that kissed his cheeks, and the why his clothes billowed around his body as he stood in front of the massive structure.

The longer he imagined the coolness of the moment, the more his mind ran with it. The wind cupping his cheeks turned warm and solid, the white noise in his ears turned into even, relaxed breathing, and the wind against his clothes turned into a solid form.

Dream opened his eyes quickly and grit his teeth.

What was up with all these weird daydreams?

He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. He closed his eyes tightly and forced himself to make his mind go blank.

The never ending flight finally came to an end and they heard the captain say a cheerful “Welcome to San Francisco!” It didn’t take too long to get off the plane and to the baggage claim, and Dream decided to text Technoblade and inform him of their arrival.

_“just landed”_

Dream almost had his phone in his pocket when he felt it vibrate in his hand. He looked at it and saw that Techno had sent him a screenshot of the Uber information.

“Bastard,” Dream muttered, a small smile creeping onto his face as he nudged Sapnap to show him. “Looks like he already got an Uber for us. Can't even be othered to pick us up himself.”

Sapnap raised his eyebrows and smirked.

“Looks like somebody’s trying to make a good impression,” Sapnap commented, walking closer to the little merry-go-round of luggage when he saw his and Dream’s bags.

The two made their way outside and saw the car already waiting nearby. They quickly loaded in their bags and they were off on the final leg of what felt like a ten year voyage. 

“I haven’t seen him since that one face reveal he did years ago,” Sapnap commented. “I bet he’s changed a lot since then though!”

Dream hummed in agreement and tried to calm his racing heart. He was slowly losing his mind as the car creeped around the unfamiliar, hilly city. The closer they got to the destination, the more anxious he became.

“Oh shit,” Sapnap said quietly. “This is the first time he’s gonna see you isn’t it.”

“Yeah,” Dream said quietly. “I’m kinda dreading it, to be honest.”

Sapnap paused for a moment and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“He’s not going to expose you or anything,” Sapnap clarified. “He’s not like that.”

Dream chuckled half-heartedly and closed his eyes. He didn’t need to explain to the other man why he felt like this, but seeing how concerned his friend looked, he thought it might be helpful to hear a little about what he was experiencing.

“I just worry that I’ll look different than how he imagined, y’know?” Dream admitted. “I mean, You’ve seen people speculate and shit. He probably has an idea and I just don’t want to disappoint or anything.”

Sapnap was quiet for a moment and he pondered what his friend said.

“You’re not ugly if that’s what you’re worried about,” Sapnap said eventually. “He’s probably just gonna be happy that he gets to see you. I mean, only a few people really know how you look so he’s most likely just gonna look at you funny for a while at worst.”

Dream sighed and looked out the window. He knew Sapnap was just trying to help him out, but all it was doing, really, was making him worry.

He dropped the topic and continued to stare out the window and watched as the narrow streets turned a little wider and less hilly as they approached what he could only assume was where they were staying.

The driver pulled up to a location and parked the car. Dream could hear his heartbeat in his ears as got out of the car and walked over to the trunk to get their bags out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a door open and a person walk out. Dream kept his eyes glued to his trunk and he couldn’t manage to pull his eyes up from the trunk.

Before he could properly react, he heard a voice behind him.

“Need help?”

Dream felt a chill go up his spine and he quickly turned around to face the person speaking to him.

He was met with a set of tired looking brown eyes behind simple rectangular glasses that seemed to look at him with an odd mix of indifference and concern. Too close. Dream’s eyes widened for a moment and he quickly grabbed the bags out of the car.

“Nope!” He said quickly, closing the trunk and turning to face the man again. “All good. Thanks anyway!”

Now that he had created some distance, he got a proper look at the man in front of him. He saw as the other man crossed his arms in front of himself and shifted his weight from one food to the other. Dream took note of how much longer the other man’s hair was. It wasn’t, like, an absurd length, but he saw that he actually had the smallest little ponytail right at the base of his neck pulling a few of the more pesky of the penny colored strands away from his ears.

He’s made a conscious effort to not look for any face reveals or anything like that, knowing that they were old and he had a few years was a long time to change one’s appearance, but he was pleasantly surprised. He would have had a massive, disgusting crush on him anyways, but him being easy on the eyes was a pretty nice bonus.

“Huh,” Techno said quietly, furrowing his eyebrows and he seemed to be doing the same thing Dream was doing. “Not what I was expecting.”

Dream pursed his lips and exhaled slowly.

 _Great,_ he thought to himself. _He thinks I’m ugly or something._

“Sorry,” Dream said coolly, attempting to cover up any hurt he might have been feeling. “Were you expecting me to be lime green or something?”

“Thanks for inviting us,” Sapnap interjected cheerfully, saving Dream from the awkward interaction and preventing the other man from properly responding. “I know it was pretty last minute, and we really appreciate it.”

Dream watched as Techno’s syrup colored eyes moved away from him and towards Sapnap, a wave of relief washing over him as he was not free of the other man’s gaze.

“It’s really nothing,” he said casually. “I had the space and I knew you guys would probably want to come, so it’s whatever.”

More casual conversation continued as the three entered the place and Dream took the opportunity to examine the other man closer. He found himself noticing a few more small things, like how Techno’s glasses didn’t quite fit his face and slid down every time he spoke and how he fidgeted with his hands whenever a silence went on for too long. It was endearing, if he was doing honest, and he wanted to find more things about the man over the next week.

“We have a few days before the thing actually starts,” Techno said casually. “So if you guys want to do anything, we have time.”

Dream let the bags stand by the door and he walked over towards where the other two were standing.

“I don’t know about you, Nick,” he said softly. “But I’m tired. I might just take tomorrow to sleep all day, to be honest.”

Dream felt his heart flutter as a small snort came from the other tall man, his eyes darting to take in as much of Techno’s smile as much as he could.

“You nerds better get it together before Thursday,” Techno almost threatened. “It’ll be a long day and I plan on having fun.” 

Dream rolled his eyes and leaned back on the counter. 

“You know I’m not doing stuff at the convention, right?” He said smoothly. “I can sleep all day if I want.”

Techno’s eyebrows furrowed together and a small smile spread across his face, an expression that sent Dream’s heart into a fluttering disaster. He watched as Techno approached him a bit, comfortably sitting at eye level with him, and squinted a bit at Dream.

“Your eyes aren’t green,” Techno said quietly. “I think that’s the most surprising thing.”

Dream’s cheeks erupted into a fiery shade of pink and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. 

“They’re a little green,” he said under his breath. “Just mostly… hazel…”

Techno hummed in understanding and leaned back a bit. Dream exhaled shakily and turned to Sapnap quickly.

“I’m gonna put my stuff in a room,” he said quickly. “Don’t do anything cool without me.”

Dream left the uncomfortable environment quickly and quickly closed himself in one of the rooms. He took a few deep breaths and allowed himself to flop back on the bed.

If this was any indication of how interactions with Techno were going to be over the next week, this going to be a lot harder than he originally thought it was going to be.

“God fucking damnit,” he muttered under his breath, doing a quick shake out before leaving his room to rejoin the conversation.

His voyage was far from over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Odysseus, or his Roman name Ulysses, was the king of Ithaca, and he ruled an island country that was west of Greece. He was the husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea. He is a main character in the Iliad, and the Odyssey is about his ten-year-voyage from the Trojan War to Ithaca.
> 
> ~~~~
> 
> Whew this one was a touch longer than what I usually write! I just started classes again so updates are for sure going to be once a week, maybe two if I have time, but my schedule is a little wild at the moment! Thank you for all the support! and I'm sure my writing will improve the further we get into it :) I have a very description heavy chapter coming up and I'm excited! also, if you wanna, follow me on social media! <3  
> Twitter: @tljpg  
> Instagram: @talleysugg  
> Discord: taljpg#8241
> 
> (also I super make edits to these after I post them so forgive me lol)


	5. Achilles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream, Techno, and Sapnap have a San Francisco adventure and Dream tests the waters go to the event in the day and dream is left alone to be in the house on his own. The two return and Techno is fuckin BLASTED and poor Sapnap is having a bad high, leaving Dream to take care of Techno. One thing leads to another and... well...
> 
> FRIENDLY REMINDER!! A drunk person CANNOT consent. Consent is one of the most important things in a relationship and is required repeatedly and enthusiastically before the use of ANY substances. Dream was DEF in the wrong here for continuing and knowing the state Techno was in, but it will get resolved don’t worry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: This chapter includes the mention of the use of drugs and alcohol, drunk kissing, but nothing too Explicit yet! If you're not cool with that, might want to skip this chapter bc it gets a little spicy. :)

Dream was legitimately surprised when the next morning he was allowed to sleep in. He was fully expecting to be flipped out of his bed and told to get up and do something by a still slightly unfamiliar face.

He felt his heart flutter in his chest at the realization that he was in the same house as the other man and he sighed heavily. It appeared that his baby crush was really blossoming into something ugly and heavily perfumed, forcing him to acknowledge it.

After a few minutes of deliberation on whether he wanted to go into the kitchen and face the reality of what his friends were doing in the other rooms of the house.

Dream stepped out of his room and crinkled his nose at the acidic, burnt and stale smell of freshly brewed coffee that lingered in the air, the smell only getting stronger as he got closer to the kitchen. 

Rounding the corner, he was met with Sapnap sitting at one of the barstools, one hand propping his head up as he scrolled through some kind of social media, and Technoblade, who was leaning against the counter and sipping the poison carelessly. Dream’s heart fluttered as he watched the bark brown eyes of the less familiar man flick up to him as he entered the room, the internal monologue of ‘shit shit shit shit shit’ resonating in every curve of his skull as he tried to keep his face neutral.

“‘Morning,” Techno said casually, cool as a cucumber and relaxed to all shit. “Sleep well?”

Dream shrugged and stretched, offering a tired yawn in response. 

“Clay’s not a morning person,” Sapnap chimed in helpfully, walking over towards his friend and giving him a shove. “You should have seen him back in Houston. I could barely get him out of his room!”

Dream rolled his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair, knowing damn well that it was a disaster.

“You know that’s a lie,” He said, his voice still gravelly with sleep. “Didn’t I wake you up at noon one day?”

Dream looked at Techno, who seemed very focused on his morning elixir, and raised an eyebrow. Sure Techno seemed to keep to himself normally, but something seemed off. He was fully prepared for some kind of snarky comment or remark from the other man, but it never came. Dream studies the man’s face and saw his fingers fidget against the ceramic mug and he seemed a little too focused on the contents of his cup.

It almost looked like Techno was trying to distract himself from something.

Dream’s heart did a little kick-flip in his chest at the thought of that being the case, but he quickly cleared his throat.

“So,” he said quickly, pulling Techno out of his focus. “You have any plans for today? You were talking a lot about today being a big day yesterday, but you never actually said what you wanted to do.”

Techno’s eyes landed on Dream and he offered an awkward smile.

“I have some things,” he said slowly. “If you’re both down, I’m totally cool with giving you a tour of some of the best places around here. I mean, the convention starts tomorrow, so there’s not going to be a lot of time to screw around over the next four days, so it’s either today or Monday I guess.”

Sapnap shrugged and offered a kind smile to the two men.

“I’m happy to do anything,” he said honestly. “I’ve never been here before, but I’m good for whatever.”

Dream walked over to the cupboard and started looking for where the cups were, hoping to be able to get a glass of water before the other two started making plans.

“How ‘bout you, Clay?” Techno asked cautiously. 

Dream felt a shiver go down his spine as he heard Techno day his name so usually. The way Techno’s voice sounded saying his name sung in his ears and ran laps around his mind. He cleared his throat quickly and shrugged, hoping that the two didn’t notice his fan girl moment..

“Sure,” Dream said casually, bringing his glass over to the tap and filling it with cool water. “I’ve never been here, so it'd be nice to get to know the place a bit better.”

Techno finished his coffee and put the now empty mug in the sink, walking right up next to Dream and looking at him closely. 

“Okay so we’ll go,” Techno decided looking between the two. “Get dressed and being a jacket.”

Sapnap scoffed and smirked.

“Isn’t California supposed to be warm?” He questioned, obviously not taking the jacker recommendation seriously.

“We’re right on the bay here,” Techno elaborated, standing up a bit straighter. “Unless you want to be freezing your tail off, bring a jacket.”

Dream snickered and grinned at his childhood friend.

“Naw, I think he should suffer a bit,” Dream teased. “If Big Tex doesn’t want to bring a jacket, he can freeze. Build character.”

Techno’s shoulders visibly became less tense and he smirked at Dream’s teasing of the shorter of the three.

“Y’know,” he said smugly. “Sun Tzu once said _‘He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.’_ ”

Dream rewarded the little good with a chuckle and rolled his eyes.

“I should have guessed that you were gonna do something with that guy,” he said, finally starting to feel relaxed in the other man’s presence. 

“You already did your Greek myth research,” Techno retorted casually. “Now you just have to read The Art of War to keep up.”

“No way in hell I’m reading that shit,” Dream bit back, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth and he eased into casual conversation with the other man. “It’s, like, three-billion pages long!

“It’s three-hundred pages, nerd,” Techno snipped back. “You could knock that out in an hour, not including a read-back or anything.”

Sapnap groaned loudly, pulling the two out of their playful back-and-forth banter.

“You two are the worst,” he said with false bitterness in his voice. “I can be ready to go in an hour if you two can be.”

The two other men looked at each other, seeming waiting for the other to come to a decision.

Techno was the first to speak up.

“I better get ready then,” he said casually. “I look like a mess.”

Dream nodded and finished his water, setting the glass down and saying a few quick things about what he wanted to do while out, and left to his room to prepare for the day, making a note to bring a jacket like he was recommended to do.

The day of adventuring around the city was successful. 

Cold and windy as shit? Of course, but still good.

Dream listened to Techno talk about his favorite spots and even exchanged some fun jokes about some dumb nerd shit occasionally. It was nice. Walking up the massive hills and trying not to let the winds push him down was made significantly easier by the pleasant conversation the three of them were having.

They eventually found themselves looking out onto the bay at a small little blob that Techno had informed them was Alcatraz from Pier 39. 

“It’s not as cool as I thought it would be,” Sapnap admitted, to which Techno rewarded him with a small laugh.

“I mean, duh,” he said taunted kindly. “We’re a mile and a little bit away and we’re not about to try and get over there.”

“Why not,” Dream asked, genuinely curious. “I mean, we just get on a boat and go, right?”

Techno rolled his eyes and leaned against the railing.

“It’s expensive and a waste of time,” he said honestly. “Once you get there, it’s not really all it’s cracked up to be. It’s an old prison and people say there’s ghosts. It’s better to just look from a distance.”

Dream hesitated for a moment before standing beside Techno against the railing, making sure to keep some space between them so as to not make the other man uncomfortable but still close enough to let the other man know that he didn’t mind being close.

“I bet it’d be cool at night,” Dream chimed in. “Exploring the place with friends and just fucking around? No tour guide? That sounds way better”

Sapnap approached the railing, joining the two in their little stare down of the unassuming island in the distance. They took in silence just feeling the wind whip against their faces. It was legitimately peaceful.

Dream’s eyes dropped from the island and focused on the nearby hands of the man next to him.

Technoblade’s fingers wrapped around the fabric of his jacket, arms crossed on top of the railing as he looked out on the freezing, choppy water below them. Dream pursed his lips and cautiously made a small movement towards the other man, nothing larger than a baby scoot closer. 

He kept his eyes down and anxiously waited to see if the other man would move away or try to get the three of them going elsewhere.

He was surprised, however, to feel the space between them close even more until they were nearly next to each other. Dream’s eyes whipped over towards the other man, who was still looking out at the water, and couldn’t help but wonder if this was his strange way of accepting the closeness Dream wanted so badly.

Dream freed one of his hands from holding his bicep and let it fall open near Techno, still remaining casual and cautious as he moved. He had a weakness for the man, so treading carefully was important for the sake of his heart and his pride.

Just as Dream’s heart started to beat a little harder in his chest, his plan was interrupted by his friend.

“Okay, I’ve had enough of this place,” Sapnap chirped, his voice shattering the almost-moment between the two other men. “Could we go somewhere for food?”

Dream snapped upright, allowing the space to become greater between himself and the other man.

“I’m kinda hungry too,” Dream said quickly, turning his attention away from his crush and towards his friend. “I’m down for whatever!”

So much for a possible moment.

The three continued their day in San Francisco and enjoyed everything she had to offer. They only went back home when the sun began to set over the rough, unassuming water of the bay.

Dream didn’t mention what happened on the pier and Techno didn’t question it.

Must have been nothing then.

The next day, Techno and Sapnap prepared to head out to the convention and Dream was sitting in the living room area with a quick breakfast and a glass of water.

“So we’ll meet up afterwards to hang with the boys, right?’ Sapnap said cheerfully, clearly excited about seeing some friends and he didn’t usually get to interact wi

“Sure,” Techno agreed casually, directing his attention to Dream, who had been focusing intently on his phone and trying not to interrupt. “You gonna be okay all alone here?”

Dream turned his eyes to his friends and offered a smile. 

“All good over here,” he said casually. “You guys just come back later and we’ll be good. D’ya have a time when you think you’ll be back?”

Sapnap buzzed his lips and furrowed his eyebrow as he tried to think of a time.

“Not too late probably,” he said carefully. “Maybe midnight? Two-AM?”

Dream scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s not late at all,” he teased. “Whatever, you have fun. Don’t die.”

Dream watched cheerfully as Sapnap flipped him off before turning his attention to his phone to see where the Uber was. 

Techno, on the other hand, seemed to have something on his mind. 

“You good, Tec-- uh, sorry, Dave?” Dream said awkwardly, which pulled the other man’s attention back up and nearly forced an interaction. “You look stressed.”

“Heh?” Techno questioned, tilting his head slightly as he processed the question the other man had asked him. “Uh, just worried. These things always freak me out.”

Dream nodded in understanding and turned his attention back to his phone.

He was surprised to see that, after a moment, Techno seemed to approach him and offer something to him. Dream looked up and saw Techno presenting a heavily annotated copy of The Art of War.

“Nick told me you’d finished your other book on the flight over,” Techno elaborated. “It’s not a bad read. Shouldn’t take very long and you get to read it all by scribbling. Since you’ll have time today, I guess it’s something to do other than just sit there.”

Dream cautiously accepted the well-loved book and turned it over in his hands a few times. It wasn’t exactly the type of book he would read usually, but a gift from Techno was something he could assume wasn’t given often.

“Thanks,” he said carefully, accepting the book and thumbing through the worn and written on pages. “I’ll check it out.”

Techno hummed in acknowledgement and quickly turned back to Sapnap, waving goodbye and leaving Dream alone in the house.

Dream set the book down beside him and continued to scroll through his twitter feed for at least an hour. He had a lot to catch up on and it was nice to go though and like fanart people made. It was relaxing, to be honest, but it was starting to get a little stale.

Eventually, he turned his attention to the annotated book beside him and picked it up. He opened it up to the first page and he was met with scribbles, doodles, and little notes about something to do with a literature class.

Dream quickly found himself reading the relatively short book and lingering on Techno’s little doodles and notes to himself. Some of it seemed to be directly related to whatever class he’d gotten the book for originally, but there’s be the occasional time stamp or a note about how to use a quote. 

It was a really interesting insight on how the other man’s mind worked and Dream was grateful for this little bit of information to get to know Techno a little bit better.

One particular quote caught his eye as he was reading.

_“It is easy to love your friend, but sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is to love your enemy”_

Dream sighed and closed his eyes tightly. 

“Way to remind me, Sun Tzu,” he said to the empty air, his eyes following the arrow leading to a note from Techno.

_" >:( " _

Dream snorted at little face and rolled his eyes. Of course Techno had some feelings about that particular line. That man and his disdain for love seemed to transcend genre, era, and mythology.

Techno was right about the book being a short read and he quickly found himself finishing the book and coming up on the last page. He frowned a bit and turned the book over in his hands a few times.

Eventually, he decided to read it a second time, this time less for the content of the book and more for the little notes Techno wrote in the book. Was it cringey and sappy? Probably, but Dream was happy to have a little Piece of Techno to explore without feeling awkward.

Soon, two reads turned into three, then four, and eventually Dream forced himself to put the book down and get some other things sorted.

He walked to his room and retrieved his laptop to start working on some other work-related things. It wasn’t very often he had time to kill and he was going to make the most of it.

After hours of working on a laptop, he eventually decided to order something to eat and retire to his room.

He genuinely thought it would be a relaxing evening and he’d be able to greet his friends without much incident.

If only it were that simple.

At around eleven pm, Dream heard the sound of the front door open and he blinked a few times before looking at the clock.

They were early.

“Clay?” Called a very concerned sounding Sapnap. “Help please!”

Dream leapt to his feet and quickly ran down the halls to find his friends slumped over each other and trying to remain upright. 

“Clay things are bad,” Sapnap said, clearly worried. “I’m too high for this shit I don’t know what to do.”

Dream assessed the scene for a moment and tried to get an understanding as to what was going on.

Sapnap was clearly high, his eyes red and irritated, the smell of weed following him wherever he went, and his loose grip on the other man making that clear. From what Sapnap had said to him, it was a bad high and he was put in a position where he had to deal with another person and his own bad high.

Techno was another story.

The man was absolutely shitfaced. His head rolled from side to side, he could barely stand up on his own, he reeked of something strong, and he was just giggling to himself. Dream had seen this kind of drunk before-- hell he’d _been_ that kind of drunk before-- and he knew how much it sucked to be alone during it.

Right now, it was time for Dream to be the party mom and take care of the drunk toddler and the high preteen.

“It’s okay!” Dream reassured, going to the other side of techno and supporting most of his weight. “I’ve got him. You go sit down on the couch and I’ll get you a water, okay”

He watched as Sapnap followed his instructions to a tee and turned his attention to the belligerent drunk Technoblade.

“Hey, bud,” Dream said carefully. “What’s going on?”

Techno’s head lulled up and he was met with a hazy stare and a grin from the other man.

“Better now,” the man slurred, his hand migrating to Dream’s back and smirking as he spoke. “I missed you.”

Dream felt his cheeks heat up and he quickly forced himself to calm down.

“You’re drunk,” he reminded Techno, walking him to the nearby couch and sitting him down. “Now stay put. No wandering off.”

Techno hummed happily and Dream turned his attention to his other unwell friend, still able to feel the other man’s eyes boring into the back of his head.

Thankfully, helping a high person is significantly easier than dealing with a drunk person and he was able to get Sapnap speaking clearly and calm within a few minutes.

“He had a lot to drink,” Sapnap explained, obviously trying to remain calm and his breathing still kind of shaky. “People kept buying him drinks and he kept accepting. I had to drag him out of there because it was bad. Like really bad, Clay, it could have been so bad.”

“But it wasn’t bad,” he said softly, giving his friend’s shoulders a tight squeeze. “Everything is okay, you’re both safe, and I’m here. Do you need anything?”

Sapnap shook his head no and Dream took a shaky breath. 

“You should lay down,” he offered. “Can you walk okay?”

Sapnap nodded and took a few more breaths. Dream jogged over to the kitchen and filled a large glass up with water to help with any cotton mouth he was feeling throughout the night or in the morning, and helped Sapnap get settled in his room.

Eventually, he had to face Techno.

Dream walked back into the living room and eyed Techno carefully. He seemed to be okay. Drunk, but okay. He wasn’t being violent or rude or anything like that, which Dream was grateful for, so all it was going to take was some finesse.

“You wanna lie down in your bed?” he offered to Techno. “It’ll be more comfy than the couch and I can even help you get settled.”

Techno turned to look at him and a smirk tugged at his lips. 

“Are you gonna help me, Clay?” the other man nearly purred. “If you are, then hell yeah.”

Dream rolled his eyes, hoping the red in his cheeks was masked by the low light in the living room. 

“C’mon,” Dream said carefully, walking over to Techno and helping him up again. “Let’s get you settled.”

Dream walked the stumbling Techno to his room, doing his best to keep the man quiet and on track as they made their adventure to Techno’s bedroom.

“You guys really went this hard on night one?” Dream questioned. “That’s so stupid, oh my god.”

Techno snickered and leaned into Dream’s firm hold.

“We had fun,” he mumbled. “Nick was mean though. He said we were going to another bar and he lied to me. Why would he lie to me that’s so mean?”

“Nick was having a bad high,” Dream explained patiently to the drunk man. “He was worried about you and himself and he wanted to go home.”

Techno grumbled in complaint, but dropped it. Dream approached Techno’s room and opened the door to allow them full access to the space. Dream carefully sat Techno down and tried to see if he was okay. 

Physically, Techno didn’t seem to be hurt or anything, but he was still worried. He had no idea how much he drank, but he could only assume that a close guess would be a metric fuck-ton.

“Claaay,” Techno purred. “Can you help me?”

Dream rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the drunk man’s eyes, now hazy with something new. It was an emotion Dream couldn’t quite place.

“What do you need?” Dream responded patiently.

Techno looked down at his shoes and made a face.

“My shoes are still on,” he stated matter-of-factly. “I don’t want them on.”

Dream scoffed and crossed his arms tightly in front of him.

“Are you asking me to take your shoes off for you?” he questioned, surprised when Techno nodded his head quickly. With another sigh, Dream knelt down and started to untie his shoes.

He undid the laces quickly and pulled off the first shoe and was about half way with the second when he felt a hand in his hair.

“You look good like this,” Techno droned, the smirk almost audible in his voice. “Just… Stay like this for a second.

Dream was frozen in place, trying to process the words he was hearing and feeling of a hand twirling his hair. It was nice, but it felt wrong. 

“Dave, you’re drunk,” Dream said coldly, taking off the second shoe and starting to stand up. “I’m not doing this right now.”

Before Dream could get to his feet properly, he felt Techno’s hand grasp his cheeks and force his head up to look at the other man.

“I’ve always thought you were attractive,” Techno said slowly, his voice like gravel under wheels as he spoke. “Even before I saw you. I hated you for so long and then I realized that it wasn’t hate. It was want. I want you, Clay. It also helps that you’re really hot, but I think I would have wanted you even if you didn’t look like this. God, you’re just fucking teasing me right now, aren’t you.”

Dream’s eyes widened and his mouth fell agape for a moment. This couldn’t have been happening. There was no way. No fucking way. This had to be some bullshit dream he was having to deal with his feelings.

Techno must have seen an opportunity in that moment of shock because the next thing he knew, his lips were taken by the other man and he was trapped in a passionate kiss.

At first, Dream was just sat in shocked silence, unable to process what all was happening, but he soon felt the hand on his cheeks move to the back of his neck and he started to melt into the other man’s touch.

He carefully parted his lips and fell into perfect rhythm with the other man. He allowed his eyes to close and he tasted the harsh taste of tequila and salt in the other man’s mouth. Dream managed to get off of his knees and he quickly went on the offensive, making a solid attempt to gain some control of the sloppy, lustful kiss the two were sharing, but Techno was determined.

Techno reached around Dream and swiftly put him flat on his back, trapping him in the position and attacking the man’s lips with a newfound fire. Dream’s hands rested shakily on the other man’s clothed chest and he gripped the fabric tightly, as if the moment would melt away if he didn’t hold on tight enough to it.

Typically, Dream wouldn’t be foolish enough to let this happen. He’d put up his walls, he’d been careful about who got to see him weak, and he was even more protective of his heart. This blossoming crush he was feeling was the heel that would end him. He was sure of it.

Dream’s weakness was Techno. He knew it was wrong to be doing this, especially in the state Techno was in, but everything felt so right in that moment. Techno’s lips on his own, Techno’s hair falling in Dream’s face every now and then and tickling the skin on his cheeks, even the other man’s hands resting gently on his sides made him feel weak.

Techno pulled away from Dream’s lips, his face suddenly serious as he seemed to eye the man beneath him. Dream took the moment away to catch his breath and try and organize his thoughts. Unfortunately for him, Techno seemed to have other plans for him.

Before Dream had time to think, he felt hot breath on his neck, causing him to shudder and make some kind of noise he’d never heard himself make. He soon felt the gentle function of lips against his collarbone, causing him to gasp and grit his teeth.

It felt amazing. Too good to be true.

He wrapped his arms tightly around the man’s head and allowed his fingers to weave through Technoblade’s penny colored hair. Dream never wanted this to end.

Slowly, the bites and sucking halted and Dream’s breath evened out a bit as the other man slowed to a halt.

“Dave?” Dream questioned breathlessly, slowly turning the other man’s head to the side to make sure he was still breathing.

Techno was sleeping peacefully, almost as if nothing had happened, and was comfortably tangled with Dream.

Dream let out a sigh of relief, glad he didn’t kill his friend somehow, but the relief was quickly replaced with an overwhelming sense of dread.

What he just did was bad. He made out with his friend, with his crush, with Technoblade. 

What the fuck was he going to do when the other man woke up in the morning an d saw them like this? How would he explain? Would Techno even remember?

He doubted that the other man would remember anything, seeing as he was absolutely hammered, but he would still have to remember the feeling of Techno’s lips on his, the way Techno looked at him, and the feeling of hot breath on his neck.

What kind of cruel joke was this. The arrow was going through his heel, piercing, painful, and stinging. Apollo had pressed the arrow that was Technoblade and it was sailing true to hit him. Dream was a dead man before he even got into the room

Dream turned his attention back to the sleeping man and he slowly felt his feelings melt away into bliss. Techno looked so peaceful like this. Slowly, Dream’s arms slid down to wrap around the other man’s back and held him close.

This would be a problem for future Dream to solve, but, for now he would live in this moment, taking it all in as sleep pulled his eyelids down for the night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Achilles was one of the greatest warriors and heroes in Greek Mythology. He was a major character in the Iliad by Homer where he fought in the Trojan War against the city of Troy. He was invincible except one spot on the back of his foot. During his final battle, Paris shot an arrow, guided by Apollo, that flew true and got Achilles right in his one weak spot, killing him.
> 
> ~~~~
> 
> WHEW wow okay spicy make out chapter! Hope y'all liked it! I... totally wrote this all listening to CORPSE HUSBAND's agoraphobic and you should all listen to it! Thanks for reading! :))) <3


	6. Harpocrates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream wakes up in the morning in the empty bed, still fully dressed. Dream assumes that he doesn’t remember. Techno decides to bring it up and confesses that he doesn’t really remember anything, but thinks he remembers kissing somebody. Dream denies it and claims that he stayed in the room to make sure he didn’t die. Lies.

Dream woke up slowly that next morning, surprisingly cold and feeling like something was missing. Keeping his eyes closed, he reached an arm out and felt the empty space beside him, still kissed with fleeting warmth but very much empty. His eyes slowly fluttered open and he looked around the room, trying to figure out where he was exactly.

He saw that he wasn’t in his own room, that being made clear by the unfamiliar bags on the floor and an open book he hadn’t seen the night before. Dream sat up slowly, looking around the room and the reality of his situation hit him like a pound of bricks directly to the chest.

He was in Techno’s room, alone, only surrounded by the memories of the night before and the massive sense of dread he felt bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

He kissed Techno. He let his guard down and didn’t use his better judgment when it came to helping his friend.

Techno was drunk and he’d taken advantage of his friend’s altered state to live through some personal fantasy of his. He allowed his emotions, his desired, and his lust to lead him instead of his better judgement. Damn him and this stupid crush.

The more he thought, however, the more the word “crush” seemed to feel too childish. A crush was brief but intense infatuation for someone with somebody entirely unattainable. It was flirting in the halls and notes in lockers and waiting after football games just to watch somebody walk past.

This was something else.

This feeling was patient. Understanding. Forgiving. This was waiting in your car for the person to jump in and start rambling about their day just to hear their voice, coming over and sitting in silence as you’d each do your individual tasks for the day, this was wearing the football jersey proudly and praying the smell of that person never went away.

Dream didn’t have a crush. He was in love in it’s most ugly form. 

And he’s basically already fucked up before he got the chance to revel in any part of his realization. He’d made his bed, and now he had to lie in it. 

He swung his feet over the side of the bed and carefully stood up. He had to face the other man and try to resolve the situation. With a stretch and a few gentle noises of resistance his body couldn’t help but squeak out, he made his way to the door and carefully left the room to find his horribly hungover friend.

He walked down the halls and went through all the possible scenarios in his head. It was painful to think about a situation where he’d lost him again, but he knew that he didn’t get to make any decisions for his friend. He was the one who made an irreversible bad decision and he was fully ready to accept whatever Techno decided for him…

Mostly…

He rounded the corner and saw an ill looking Technoblade, eyebrows furrowed and leaning against the marble countertop, staring down at an unsuspecting Belvita wrapper. When Dream was properly out of the hall, the other man’s brown eyes stared back at him, squinting in pain as he moved his head a little too quickly. Dream inhaled sharply and offered a small smile to the obviously uncomfortable man.

“That bad?” Dream almost teased, earring him a groan and a half-hearted eye roll from the clearly uncomfortable other man.

“I’m surprised I’m not dead on the floor,” Techno responded quietly, his tired voice sending a shiver down Dream’s spine. “How much did I have?”

Dream let out a breathy sigh and carefully approached the other man, careful to keep his voice down and make his movements small. Being hungover was a bitch and he didn’t want to make this next conversation any more painful than it had to be.

“Nick said you were just taking drinks from people,” he tried to recall. “So it could have been anything. I didn’t know you were a tequila guy.”

Techno laughed mostly to himself, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes and wincing slightly.

“Yeah,” the other man admitted. “Quick and easy. Plus, it’s easy for other people to buy. If i can get other people to pay for me to do something, it’s going to happen.”

Dream scoffed and rolled his eyes at the claim. He knew Techno had to have some money, judging by where he lived in California, and it honestly seemed pretty ridiculous to try and get other people to pay for him when he almost definitely had the money to spare. But it was none of his business what Techno did, just as long as he was safe at the end of the day.

“Did I bring somebody home with me?” Techno asked carefully, snapping Dream out of his own thoughts. Dream raised an eyebrow and eyed the other man carefully. If he was thinking recklessly, he could have almost sworn Techno’s cheeks had gained some color at the prospect.

“Not that I saw,” Dream answered honestly, walking over to the coffee pot and, after a moment’s hesitation and a gag, started to prepare a pot of coffee for the other man. “It was just you and Nick. Have you seen him, by the way?”

Techno’s lips closed together in a tight line, eyebrow furrowing as he was visibly trying to connect some dots for himself. 

“I think he’s already at the convention,” Techno answered. “He seems to be fine though. Nothing out of the ordinary. Was he drunk too?”

Dream shrugged and made a face as the bitter smell of coffee entered the room. 

“Bad high,” he said simply, to which Techno nodded in understanding. 

There was a moment of silence between the two for a while, filled only by the hissing and struggling of the coffee pot as it sputtered out the dark liquid. Dream shifted uncomfortably in the quiet and watched as Techno seemed to think.

He watched as Techno closed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows closer together, almost as if their distance from each other would help him collect his thoughts. Something about Techno trying to remember was horrifying to him and, as much as he knew that he needed to address it, he wanted to let the night die with the moon, never to be mentioned or talked about again.

But there was no such luck. 

“Are you sure I didn’t bring anybody back here?” Techno asked again, obviously trying to find some missing puzzle pieces. “I just remember something and it’s fuzzy.”

Dream swallowed thickly and shrugged. Before he could even think about possibly coming clean about anything, he found words spilling past his lips.

“Unless it happened before you got back,” Dream said coolly, silently cursing himself for not just being honest. “You and Nick came home together. Just you too.”

Techno hummed quietly in acknowledgement and took out a little crisp from the packet, eating it slowly and cautiously. Dream felt ill about not just coming out and saying it, but it felt like there was an invisible hand over his mouth keeping him from saying what he meant.

It was hell.

Dream looked over to the freshly brewed pot of coffee and pulled a mug out of the cabinet and started to pour the hot drink into the vessel for the hungover man. Sure he hated the stuff, but he’d been told that caffeine helped with the hangover headache.

He placed the black coffee in front of the man and offered a small smile. Techno eyed the coffee carefully, almost as if he didn’t quite trust the drink the other had prepared for him, but wrapped his large hands around the now warm mug and stared into the umber-colored liquid.

“Thanks,” he offered carefully, bringing the drink to his lips and sighing blissfully as drank the drink. Dream couldn’t help but smile as the other man melted into the warm drink and he made his way to sit in front him in another stool.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, Dream’s mind running wild as he tried to build up some courage to confess about what happened the night before.

He was worried about what Techno would say in response to this new information, but part of his mind wondered how he would react. He would completely understand if Techno shunned him and left him to find a place to stay for the rest of his trip, but part of his mind, the dark, hopeful and in love part, almost hoped for Techno would tell him that he wanted it. That he would take control and explain everything and give Dream the words. 

This really was a miserable secret to keep.

“What are you remembering?” Dream questioned, unable to live in the silence for much longer. “I mean, maybe if you explain it to me, I could… help you sort it out??

Techno scoffed a bit and kept his eyes down, looking at his drink almost bitterly.

“It’s really something I dreamed, to be honest,” he explained quietly, almost sounding embarrassed about the puzzle piece. “I just remember kissing somebody. It was really nice and I… yeah if I remember who it is, I’d like to… I dunno it’s dumb. Probably just some stranger at a bar.”

Dream’s eyes widened and he let his eyes drift to the suddenly very interesting countertop. He’s like to what? It was nice? Was he talking about his interaction with Dream or not?

“That’s weird,” Dream lied through his teeth, not sure why he wasn’t just explaining what happened. “You were pretty fucked up last night, so I’m not surprised you don’t remember much.”

There was another moment of silence before Techno spoke again.

“Is that why you were in my room?” Techno asked, making Dream go cold.

“How do you mean?” Dream questioned, hoping the slight uncharacteristic lilt in his voice as he spoke didn’t give him away. 

“I mean,” Techno began slowly. “I woke up and you were in my bed. I’d usually remember the people I bring into my room, so I must have been pretty fucked to not remember you falling asleep in my bed.”

Dream felt a wave of relief wash over him as Techno elaborated, but the slight disappointment of being the only one to remember the passion was a little too present in his heart.

“Clay?” Techno said carefully, gripping the mug a little tighter and his tone pulling Dream’s eyes up to meet his. “I didn’t… try… anything, did I?”

Dream’s mouth dried up as he tried to figure out how to go about this. What was he supposed to say? _‘You told me I looked good on my knees in front of you and basically confessed that you loved me’_ ? No! _‘Hey yeah sorry yeah you pinned me down and kissed me until I was a mess and I can’t stop thinking about it’_? Jesus Christ not that either! That would make things worse! He held the eye contact for a long time and, eventually, his vocal chords forced out some vibrations before his brain could process what he was saying.

“You were drunk and I wanted to make sure you didn’t die in your sleep or choke on your own puke,” he found himself saying. “You were a little… flirty… but nothing happened.”

Dream felt nauseated as he watched Techno sigh in relief, feeling awful for lying but also at the fact that he seemed so relieved that nothing happened between them.

“Okay, good,” Techno said calmly, offering a small smile. “I don’t want to make anything harder for our friendship, so I’m glad I didn’t do anything. Thanks for looking after me. I owe you.”

“No, it’s okay,” Dream forced out, choking back the guilt he felt in the back of his throat. “It’s nothing. Somebody had to be the responsible adult.”

The words stung as he said them, feeling the hypocrisy biting his lips as the words tumbled past them. He knew the truth would have to come out at some point and even thinking about it made him feel ill. He was seriously sucked if he wasn’t able to keep his mouth shut about this. The more he thought about the consequences of his actions the further down the shame spiral he fell and the harder it was to see any sign of a positive outcome to this.

He really had fucked himself over here and he was the only one to blame.

“You okay?” Techno asked quietly. “You look… bad.”

Dream scoffed and offered a fake smile. He was going to keep this secret until he died.

“Fine,” he lied once again. “Just tired. You move a lot when you sleep and I didn’t sleep well.”

Techno scoffed and rolled his eyes, a small smile threatening to pull the corners of his lips. He took another sip of his drink and closed his eyes.

“Whose fault is that?” he teased, letting the coffee pass his lips and go down his throat before continuing the sentence. “You’re the one who decided to sleep in the bed instead of the floor or something. Not my fault.” 

Dream closed his eyes and a bright smile somehow managed it’s way onto his face before he could stop it, a small laugh following it as he was starting to enjoy the conversation between them. 

“Shut up,” he said gently. “Next time I’m leaving you to choke and die.”

The happiness he was feeling seemed unearned, seeing as he had been lying about everything that had happened between them the night before. It felt wrong.

But also so incredibly right.

Suddenly, Techno’s eyes narrowed and he stared at Dream’s neck.

“Did _you_ have somebody over?” he questioned, nodding at Dream curiously. 

Dream raised an eyebrow and tried to look down his shirt for whatever Techno was referencing before eventually pulling out his phone and turning the front camera on. That was when he saw little nips and hickeys on his collarbone going up onto his neck.

Dream saw his face turning bright read and he cleared his throat and tried to think of a lie. He was in too deep to tell the creator of the marks that it was his doing.

“They’re old,” he ended up settling on. “Just because I’m busy doesn’t mean I don’t, like, get out and do… stuff.”

 _Nice save,_ he chastised himself, almost positive that Techno would never believe a story like that.

Techno was quiet for a moment, just examining the other man and trying to glean anything from the information he was given. The silence lasted for such a long time that Dream actually started to think of a story that he could tell Techno if he asked. Nice girl, somebody he didn’t know, got too excited, blah blah blah he would get the picture.

“Okay,” Techno said calmly, turning his attention back to his drink. “You should really tell your partners to leave that stuff lower.”

“I didn’t really have a say in the matter,” Dream said quietly, remembering how Techno had fully taken control of him and left him helpless. “It just kinda happened to me.”

Techno hummed in understanding and swirled the drink around in the mug, clearly in thought.

“I read the book,” Dream said quickly, hoping that the distraction would keep Techno from thinking too hard about what he said. “It was good. Your annotations made it pretty enjoyable too.”

Techno raised an eyebrow and eyed the other man carefully. 

“You actually read it?” he questioned, to which dream nodded enthusiastically.

“Not really my thing,” he admitted. “But it was still a good read. To be honest, I had to read it a few times to get much out of it. Your annotations were fun.”

Techno chuckled lowly and sighed heavily. 

“I had a feeling,” he admitted. “But now we can talk about the same things a little more.”

Dream smiled happily at the idea of being able to share something with the other man and admired his gentle smile as Techno continued to drink the bitter liquid he had made for him.

“Did you have a favorite thing he talked about?” Dream questioned carefully as he looked at the other man, watching as the smile started to fade from his face.

Something in Techno’s physicality changed and he couldn’t help but worry that he’d done something wrong.

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity,” Techno responded slowly. It almost sounded like a threat, the way he said it and it sent a bitter chill down Dream’s spine.

There was a silence between the two for a while, neither daring to break it. The silence was fragile, tense, and vibrating like a wine glass in an earthquake. After some time of just looking at each other he, Techno shattered the silence by clearing his throat.

“Could I have that back?” he questioned, getting up and pouring the remainder of his coffee into the sink. “It’s pretty important to me and I just kinda want to make sure it didn’t get messed up.

Dream stood quickly and went back to his room to retrieve the weathered book without another word. 

Dream worried that maybe he’d been found out by the way the other man was acting. The Sun Tzu quote was a little too on the nose for his liking and he felt that heavy dread sink like a lead weight in his stomach, weighing him down and bringing his mind into horrible places of fear.

But he’s already committed to his silence on things. He couldn’t turn around and change things now. He had made the decision to sit in silence and it was the only way he could see to get out of this situation. 

Dream found the book and held it carefully for a moment, staring at the worn cover and well-loved pages of the book. A little piece of Technolade he would have to give up.

It wasn’t like it was the only thing he would ever receive from the man again, but there was something bitter about having to return something so special. He held the book close to his chest, almost as if he was trying to let Techno’s doodles, scribbles, and other such things pass into his body through osmosis, and regretfully left the room to return the book.

He closed his eyes and sighed heavily as he rounded the corner to see Techno in the kitchen washing his dish in silence. Dream approached carefully and extended the book to the brunette.

“Not even a dog eared page,” Dream said kindly. “I really didn’t do anything to it.”

Techno took the book after drying his hands and looked at Dream carefully.

“I’m sorry I was difficult last night,” Techno said with a new coldness in his voice. “I’m going back to the convention later today to meet up with Nick and I shouldn’t do anything too crazy tonight.”

Dream nodded and shifted awkwardly from foot to foot.

“If you do, It’s okay,” Dream said carefully. “I don’t mind taking care of--”

“I’m not going to do it again,” Techno said shortly, quickly cutting the other man off and leaving the sentiment to die in the air they shared.

Dream pursed his lips together tightly and nodded, taking a few steps back from the man.

“Well,” Dream said cautiously. “I… I have a meeting today over the phone so… I’m just gonna leave you be. I’m sure you have to get ready for today too.”

After receiving an indifferent nod from the other man, Dream turned on his heel and went back to his room. He knew he’d upset Techno somehow, but he assumed that now wasn’t the time to try and resolve that issue. Whatever he’d done, it was clear that Techno needed a moment.

 _Did he figure it out?_ the little voice on the back of Dream’s mind questioned.

He froze in the middle of his room, and looked at the floor for a moment, trying to process his emotions.

He hadn’t given anything away that he knew of. He’d kept his mouth shut about the night previous. About the feeling of Techno’s hands in his hair, about the kissing, the biting, the hot breath they exchanged. None of that came up.

All he knew was that he was really caught between a rock and a hard place.

This was a secret he had committed to and now he was stuck with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harpocrates was the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria, and also an embodiment of hope, according to Plutarch. According to one myth, Aphrodite gave her son, Eros, a rose who gave it to Harpocrates to ensure that his mother's indiscretions were kept under wraps.
> 
> ~~~
> 
> Sorry if this seems rushed but I wanted to bring something out! Hope you enjoy!!! <3


	7. Tiresias

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eventually they all have to go home and Dream tells Sapnap about everything that happened on their final night. Sapnap is, understandably, concerned and questions why he didn’t just tell the other what happened and urges him to come clean and tell Techno, but Dream doesn't think he can do it.

The next few days were eerily quiet. 

The routine had become normal at this point: The three would wake up, Dream would cook something for the other two men who would leave a few hours later, Dream would spend his day taking calls and meeting with his accountant and other such things while the other two went out to meet fans and other creators, they would return in the evening, and they would all go to bed.

Simple. But it still bothered Dream to an unreasonable extent.

Sapnap was as kind and playful as ever, cracking jokes and picking on Dream in any way he could think of in the moment, but Technoblade had been distant. More so than usual. If it had been like that before, he wouldn’t have minded too terribly, but all seemed to go wrong after that night.

Dream was sat at the counter on a barstool sliding a coaster between his hands and allowing his mind to wander. It was his last day before the plan to make his pilgrimage back home to the hot, muggy Florida. The transition from the now-comfortable seventy-degree San Francisco weather to the Florida ninety-degree weather was going to be a miserable transition was going to be hell, but he knew he couldn’t stay forever. He had work to do.

Even so, he was going to miss it here.

The everyday interactions with Technoblade and the small chatter during breakfast, the comfortable feeling of being able to grab a blanket to keep the early morning chill away, hell, even the smell of bitter coffee reaching his nose every morning and occasionally late into the night was something he was going to miss.

The more he thought about it, the more he came to terms with the fact that he would really just miss Technoblade.

He groaned quietly and rested his forehead against the cool counter, closing his eyes tightly and trying to clear his head. His heart already ached for the other man and he hadn’t even started packing to go home yet.

After an acceptable amount of time just sitting with the counter cooling his forehead, he sat up and kicked his legs to get off of the chair. There was no point in wallowing when there was work to be done to prepare for his flight home.

He walked back to his room and allowed himself to take a moment to see just how comfortable he had gotten in the previously unfamiliar space. His suitcase was opened with clothes scattered about the place and the floor around the unassuming piece of luggage, his laptop was still open on the unused side of his bed, and his stomach filled with dread at the idea of having to return the room to its original, cold state.

Dream cleaned his room and set out some clothes for the next morning and, before he knew it, he heard the front door open and the other men returned to the house.

The routine continued on the final day of the men coming home and Dream couldn’t help but hope that maybe the final day would be different.

“How was the last day?” Dream questioned, trying to remain casual as the three of them sat in a dangerous silence in the living room.

“Fine,” Techno said coolly. “It was tiring mostly.”

Dream nodded silently and stared intently at the TV in front of them, not really paying attention but trying to look anywhere else.

“We ran into Karl,” Sapnap added uneasily, clearly acknowledging the discomfort between the other two men and trying to break the silence. “He surprised a lot of people by being there! He mostly stuck around Jimmy, but it was still good to see him.”

Dream let his eyes wander over to his friend and he felt some of the tension in the room melt away.

“That’s nice!” Dream said carefully, still overly aware of how Technoblade was acting. “I thought he said he had something going on and he wasn’t going to be able to make it.”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Sapnap exclaimed, turning his body to face Dream better. “To be honest, I’m glad we’re back earlier today. My social battery is draaaained. Are you all packed?”

Before Dream could get a response in, Techno was standing up quickly and walking over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of something. The satisfying sound a pottle cap coming off of a bottle rang in the air and the brunette in the kitchen sipped the beverage carefully.

“You good, Techno?” Sapnap asked carefully, to which he was met with indifference bordering on disrespect.

“Just wanted a drink,” Techno responded coolly. 

Dream’s lips pressed together into a thin line as the other man sipped the Alcoholic beverage quickly. His mind was already starting to wander to the events that had happened a few days ago and a light blush kissed his cheeks.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Dream asked carefully. “Last time you--”

“It’s one beer, Clay,” Techno interrupted, almost as cold as the air from the refrigerator itself. “I’m not gonna get drunk off one beer. Get off my ass.”

Dream’s mouth opened, a confession of what happened those nights before threatening to pour out, but he quickly closed it and pulled his eyes to the television and watched mindlessly.

“Whatever,” he said, matching the other man’s coolness. “Do whatever you want I guess.”

The coldness in the room was palpable and it was only broken by Techno physically leaving the room with his drink. Dream could have almost sworn that he looked upset, but if Techno was going to act like this, he wasn't going to humor him and his pettiness. As soon as the other man left the room, Dream felt himself deflate into a puddle of confusion and hurt. Sapnap eyed his friend carefully before speaking.

“Okay,” the shorter of the two said, leaning back into the couch and narrowing his eyes at the other. “What happened the night we came back from drinking?”

Dream felt every hair on his body stand on end and his green-heavy hazel eyes dropped down to look at his hands.

“Nothing,” he lied. “Nothing happened. I got you and him into bed and then he was weird the next morning.”

The two sat in the silence for a long time and Dream shifted uncomfortably where he sat. He could feel Sapnap’s eyes on him, burning holes through his skull in an attempt to read his thoughts.

“Dude,” Sapnap said carefully. “It’s just you and me. You can tell me if something happened. I won’t judge.”

Dream felt the truth burn the back of his throat as he dug his nails into the sensitive skin of his palms. He was dying to tell somebody. He needed to get it off his chest, but he worried that his terrible secret would be more than his friend was expecting.

“You can’t say anything to anybody,” Dream said carefully. “You have to swear you won’t say anything.”

“Seriously?” Sapnap said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You really think that little of me?”

“Just… Swear. Please.”

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two, but, after some time just sitting in it, Sapnap eventually groaned and agreed. 

“Fine,” he said, a joking reluctance clear in his voice. “I swear I won’t tell anybody.”

Dream cleared his throat awkwardly before starting.

“Dave was really drunk,” he said slowly. “I was trying to help him get to bed and… stuff happened.”

Sapnap’s smile slowly melted into something of fear for his friend.

“You didn’t…” Sapnap started carefully, leaning forward out of his relaxed position into a much more attentive one. “Clay, did you _do_ anything with him?”

“No!” Dream said quickly. “We didn’t-- Jesus Nick, we didn’t fuck or anything!”

Sapnap exhaled in relief and closed his eyes tightly, relief washing over him.

“Thank fucking god,” he said carefully, vis voice almost shaky. “Okay, what happened then.”

Dream hesitated for a moment and looked at his hands as he thought about how to say it without exposing himself as a Techno simp.

“We just kissed,” Dream said carefully. “That was it. He… he’s the one who… took control. I just kinda sat there.”

Sapnap’s expression was stony and nearly unreadable for a good while. He looked seriously in thought.

“Clay,” he asked very slowly. “Did Dave take advantage of you?”

Dream turned a fiery shade of red and pulled up his hands to wipe away any his friend might have had.

“Nonononono!” Dream said quickly. “I was… I was fine! It was whatever and it didn’t go any further than that. I knew I could have stopped him at any point! I was safe!”

Sapnap raised an eyebrow and sat up a bit, still watching his friend closely. Dream knew he sounded suspicious saying this, but he was seriously struggling enough as it was.

“So you’re both okay then,” Sapnap said carefully, putting the puzzle together as the two spoke. “So why are you both acting so weird about it?”

Dream fidgeted uncomfortably as they spoke and closed his eyes tightly as he prepared for the next part of the story.

“That next morning,” He started slowly, trying to make sure he was getting all his words right as he spoke. “We were talking about stuff and he kept asking about what happened. I know I should have just told him. I know I should have told him about-- I didn’t think he’d remember so I planned on letting it die. I told him nothing happened and now he’s acting… weird.”

There was a long silence between Dream’s confession and the next thing Sapnap was planning to say. The wordless beat taken between the two was agony for the taller man, unable to stop picking at his nails and trying with his whole chest to remain cool and collected. Eventually, the other man spoke.

“You seriously fucked up, man,” Sapnap said slowly. “Literally why are you lying here?”

Dream tensed up and swallowed thickly. His friend was right. There was no point in lying, especially if Techno was onto him, so why was it so difficult to say the truth? WHy did he continue to pretend that nothing happened?

“I don’t want to know what he’ll say,” Dream admitted, partly to Sapnap but mostly to himself. “If I tell him, it’ll ruin everything. I don’t want him to remember. I want him to forget and pretend it never happened because then we can pretend it meant nothing.”

Sapnap sighed heavily and looked at his friend, the look on his face almost pitying.

“You can’t control what he thinks,” Sapnap said quietly. “You _need_ to tell him what happened. This isn’t just a pride thing, dude. This is a consent thing. It’s a respect thing. All you’re doing here is digging your own grave.”

Dream let his head fall into his hand as he listened to his friend speak. He knew he was right, but something deep inside of him didn’t want to hear the truth. He wanted to keep living in this fantasy world where things were perfect and fine and where that night could die. He wished with all his heart that Techno would suddenly become unattainable again. He wished he could forget Techno’s affections. 

_I want you, Clay._

_I think I would have wanted you even if you didn’t look like this._

_You’re just fucking teasing me right now, aren’t you?_

The words rang around in his head as he recalled the gravely tone the other man spoke in, every consonant drawing him in and every syllable ensnaring him further. 

He was a disaster.

“Clay,” Sapnap said, a little firmer than he had said a few times before. “You need to tell him. If you don’t, you’ll only be making things harder for yourself.”

Dream chewed on his lip and stared at the ground.

“I don’t know if I can yet,” Dream said quietly.

“No, you’re going to,” Sapnap said firmly. “Before we get on that plane tomorrow, you’re telling him.”

Dream hesitated before responding. He knew his friend was right, but he was still terrified of what could come out of a confession like that.

“Yeah,” he eventually agreed, sitting up and grinding his teeth together to keep himself from making up another excuse. “Yeah, I can do that.”

Sapnap sighed in relief and leaned back in his spot on the couch, clearly glad that his friend had agreed to come clean.

“Great,” he said breathily. “Awesome. I’ll even bring the bags out so you two can have your moment or whatever. Was that so hard?”

Dream shrugged and kept his eyes down.

He knew damn well that saying things was easy. Actually doing them was an entire other story.

Eventually, the two properly retired to their separate rooms, finished packing, and let the agreement to rest until the morning when Dream would be expected to actually act on his end of the agreement

The next morning, Dream found himself struggling to even get out of bed. Partly because he was tired and warm under the covers of the bed, but also because he knew what he was expected to do on this particular morning.

Eventually, he made his way out to the living room area and saw that Sapnap and Techno were already there, chatting away and having casual conversation with each other. Dream wished he could partake in that, but, as soon as he was spotted, Technoblade quieted really quickly.

“Morning,” Dream said carefully, looking between the two and smiling kindly.

“Mornin’.” Techno said quietly, still averting his eyes and keeping his words brief. “Nick says your flight is at ten. I can drive you.”

“Wait, really?” Dream questioned carefully. “You’re cool with taking us? We can always get an Uber if that’s too much.”

Techno shook his head and looked at Dream properly for the first time in at least a day. 

“It’s the least I could do,” he said coolly. “It’s not that bad of a drive and I want to see you two off.”

Dream nodded and looked over at his friend, hoping that he would be able to find some kind of understanding that today might not be the best time to admit much. Unfortunately, he was met with a cold wall of unsympathetic silence. Subpoena wasn’t conceding any time soon it appeared.

“Okay then,” Dream said carefully, allowing his gaze to drop. “I can be ready in an hour.”

There was a nod from the other man and Dream quickly went to take care of his business, finishing packing, taking a picture of Sapnap and posting it on his alt twitter with the caption “Going home :(,” and allowing himself to relax before the long flight home.

The three eventually piled into the car and began the trek to the airport. It was a relaxing drive, mostly quiet with the relaxing voices of the speakers on NPR talking about some other countries’ government or the oppression of animals or something. Dream was more focused on the way Technoblade was driving.

He liked the way he used his pinkie and ring fingers to hit the turn signal, the way the palms of his hands flipped over the well-loved steering wheel of the old Honda civic, even how he tucked his left foot under his right leg when they were stopped at a stop light.

“Have anything planned after this?” Sapnap said eventually, breaking both the silence and Dream’s focus on Techno’s mannerisms. “Just planning on chilling out?”

Techno shrugged and leaned back into the slightly stiff car seat. “I’m probably just gonna do my own thing for a bit. Just hanging out with my sisters probably. They’ve been bothering dad about it.”

Dream smiled at the idea of Techno hanging out with his sisters. Maybe they would dream’s sister to come sometime and just let the girls hang out.

“Aww,” Sapnap teased. “Big brother Techno needs to take care of his little sisters aww.”

Technoblade rolled his eyes and glanced over at Dream for a moment.

“You know what it’s like,” Techno said to Dream. “They just want to hang out sometimes and you’ve just gotta do it.”

Dream smiled a bit and shrugged, thinking about his younger sister and how she would constantly pester him, wanting to paint his nails or do his eyebrows or any other kind of silly thing. He used to hate it, but he did enjoy her company deep down.

“Yeah, I get it,” he said eventually. “She’s probably gonna jump me when I guess back and demand we hang out or something. Any nail polish recommendations?”

He was happy to hear laughter from the other two, his heart fluttering at the deep chuckle from the taller of his two friends. After the little joke, more laughter and conversation came easy.

Before they knew it, the car had pulled up to the entrance to the airport and the three sat in silence for a minute, none of them really wanting the pleasant time to end.

“Well,” Dream said slowly, shifting in his seat as he spoke. “Looks like this is our stop.”

Sapnap was the first to properly unbuckle and stretch.

“I’ll get the bags out of the trunk!” He said, flashing Dream a knowing look. Techno was quick to start to unbuckle but Dream caught his arm before he could get too far, the small touch sending a wave of electricity through Dream’s chest and sizzling at the top of his head.

“We’ll meet you in a sec,” Dream said quickly. “I have something to talk to Dave about.”

Sapnap nodded and left the car, leaving the two alone to talk about whatever they needed to talk about.

Techno looked at Dream wit something that almost looked like worry.

“Is something wrong, Clay?” He questioned carefully, his voice low and his eyes looking straight ahead, hardly acknowledging Dream next to him.

Dream swallowed thickly and chewed over the words he knew he had to say.

He knew that he needed to just spit it out. He knew that saying it was going to be the easiest part of the whole thing, but why was it so hard? All he had to do was say that they kissed, almost did more, and that Dream liked it. He knew he didn’t have to say that last bit, but it felt like a necessary thing to add. He didn’t want Techno thinking that he was opposed to the event. In fact, he wanted nothing more than for it to happen again but sober. As much as he loved getting drunk off of Techno’s tequila kisses, he would much rather taste the man substance-free. For science, y’know? 

He cleared his throat and watched as Techno’s brown eyes met his green-heavy hazel, wondering if he was only seeing the hope in the other man’s eyes because that’s what he wanted to see. 

“Whatever it is,” Techno said slowly, scanning Dream’s face for any answers. “It’s fine. It’s nothing we can’t talk through.”

Dream choked on his confession and felt it buzz around in his head uselessly. He wanted to speak honestly, but he worried about what Techno would say. He clearly thought it was something that could be talked about casually. He had no idea.

He looked over Techno’s shoulder to see Sapnap in the side mirror sitting with the luggage.

Nick would understand, right?

“I don’t have your phone number,” Dream said quietly. “I was… nervous to ask you for it earlier because I thought you wouldn’t want to give it out. It just feels weird to message you on twitter or discord every time we wanna chat.”

There was a silence in the air, delicate as spiders silk in a hurricane, and the two just looked at eachother. Dream saw Techno’s expression go stoney and he pulled out his phone, handing to to Dream without looking at him.

“Put your number in,” He said coldly. “I’ll text you at some point.”

Dream took the phone cautiously and typed in the numbers into the device carefully, glancing up at the other man occasionally to get a read on him. Techno looked upset, but he had no idea why. He hadn’t let anything slip, he’d just asked for his number. 

Dream cautiously handed the phone back to the other man and he watched as Techno sent a simple ‘hi’ to his number, the number being clarified by a soft ‘ping!’ from Dream’s phone. Before he could get a question in, Techno spoke up for him.

“Is that all you wanted to say?” Techno asked quietly, disbelief heavy in his voice. “You just wanted my number?”

Dream nodded, pulling his eyes away and letting them rest in his lap. How could he look at Techno after lying like this for what felt like the hundredth time.

Techno hummed quietly and took a deep breath.

“Nick’s probably waiting for you,” Techno said quietly. “You should go.”

Dream nodded quickly and unbuckled himself from his seat. 

“Thanks again,” he said to the other man. “This was a nice trip.”

Techno met his thanks with an unreadable “Sure.” Dream quickly got out of the car and looked at his friend, who was looking at him expectantly. Dream led them away from the car and watched as Techno sped away.

“I couldn’t do it,” Dream admitted, to which Sapnap rewarded his stupidity with a scoff. “I just couldn’t do it. I tried but… every time I got close, I just couldn’t get the words out.”

Sapnap had an incredulous look on his face as his friend explained, clearly confused and frustrated. Dream knew he was in the wrong and that he’s completely fucked it over. The two walked over to the ticket and baggage check place in silence, clear tension between them. It was earned, most definitely, but Dream still felt alone with Sapnap’s silence.

After they got their tickets and bags checked and were walking over to TSA, Sapnap finally spoke up.

“I’m not going to keep trying to help you if you keep ignoring what I say,” he said bluntly, nearly knocking the wind out of Dream with his words. “I’m not saying that I won’t be there for you… but… dude, I can’t in my right mind keep offering you help when all you do is throw it away.”

Dream grit his teeth and stared at the staticky-looking tile of the airport, the frustration bubbling in his chest as the other man spoke.

“I thought you said you’d be there for me!” he cried, trying to control his voice around the strangers. “Now you’re bailing?”

Sapnap sighed and tugged on the straps of his backpack.

“I’m not bailing,” he responded calmly. “I’m just not going to help you anymore until you can figure out how to tell him what happened. This isn’t just a secret thing, man. This is… it’s consent and it’s him being drunk and you being sober. I… I don’t know, dude. I’m not going to help you with this situation anymore. It’s your beast to kill or let kill you.”

Dream looked over at his childhood friend and chewed his bottom lip.

“Fine,” he said, defeated. “We’re still… we can still talk though, right?”

Sapnap turned to look at his friend with a look that almost resembled compassion. 

“Of course we can still talk,” he said softly. “We’re still friends. I’m not going to drop you because you don’t know how to fix your own problems. I’m just not going to solve your problems for you and watch you throw them out the window. I still love you, man. I’m still your guy.”

Sapnap gripped his friend’s shoulder and offered a small smile, which was eventually returned by Dream. At least he wasn’t as alone as he thought he was going to be.

The two got through TSA with little to no trouble, Dream only having to be patted down due to a random search. Once through, the two said a bittersweet goodbye as they went to their separate ways to their separate gates. They weren’t able to get a flight together with the day they were returning, but at least it gave Dream some time to think on his own.

The day went faster than Dream was ready for, the moments blurring into each other as he went on auto pilot to his seat on the plain, exiting for the second flight, and eventually landing back in the humid, hot Florida afternoon.

He continued the motions of getting home, picking up Patched from his family’s home, allowing his sister to drag him into her room and paint his nails all different colors as she told him all about the different things that had been happening in her friend groups.

Eventually, he was allowed to go home and bring his sweet cat with him. He drove home in silence and tried to ignore the growing hole in his chest by cranking up the AC of the car. He wanted nothing more than to just be able to get home safe. 

After a long day of travel, the only thing he wanted to do was wallow around and sleep off some of the travel nausea he was feeling. He unlocked his door and was surprised by how quiet it was. After spending so long either on a plane or in a car, his back was screaming at him to lay down, hut his attention captured by another screaming companion, this one instead screaming to be fed.

As he watched patches eat her dinner, he took out his phone and decided to text his friends and say he got home safe. He texted Sapnap first and was met with a simple thumbs up emoji.

Next was Techno. He sent a quick ‘home safe. thanks again for letting us come’ and waited for a response.

A response that never came, mind you.

He’d be lying if he said it didn’t hurt, and the hole in his chest seemed to agree, aching painfully as he put his phone away.

After a significant amount of time just waiting around, he made his way to his room, leaving the door open for his spoiled cat to come in as she pleased.

Dream collapsed into his own bed, sighing heavily as the familiar scents of his detergent and patches entered his nose. As familiar and warm as it was, he still felt like he was missing something. The hole in his chest swallowed more of his happiness and he couldn’t help the hopeless tears that pricked at the corners of his eyes.

He missed San Francisco. 

He missed Techno.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. The blind prophet of Thebes appears in Oedipus the King and Antigone. In both plays, he represents the same force: the truth rejected by a willful and proud king, almost the personification of Fate itself.
> 
> ~~~
> 
> Hope you all liked this chapter! It totally hasn't been beta read so I'm juts gonna go through and edit things and make them right over the next few days lol. We're almost at the halfway point! Next chapter should be the exact middle I think! How are you all doing? I love to hear about you all. Thanks for reading! <333


	8. Medusa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a few days of deliberation, Dream decides to try and talk to Techno about that one night in San Francisco.

It had been a few days since Dream had returned home and he hadn’t felt any better about anything. If anything, he was feeling worse.

He couldn’t talk to Sapnap about how he was feeling, knowing that he was already said that he didn’t want to help until Dream had come clean, he couldn’t sister up the courage, and there was no way he was telling his kid sister about all this.

Dream reclined on his bed for a long time and tried to let the bad feelings wash over him and hopefully bring sleep with thim. He hadn’t been sleeping well, the secret eating away at his mind and interrupting his sleep, and it was really his own fault.

He wanted nothing more than for things to go back to normal, or as normal as they could get, and for them to all just get along.

One big happy family.

But then Dream had to go on and be a homewrecker in his own life, keeping secrets that really should have been addressed as soon as possible. This was seriously fucked and he was the only one who could have prevented it. 

The comfort he felt in his bed was fleeting as the sun peeked through his half-closed blinds. With a heavy sigh, he kicked his feet off the side of the bed and decided that he should probably get up and take care of himself. 

He was honestly ashamed to admit that his self care had been kinda pushed to the backburner as he tried to deal with the negative effects this burden was putting on his heart. He’d been neglecting his showering, brushing his teeth was too difficult sometimes, and even something as simple as changing his clothes was growing too difficult for the man.

It was pathetic, honestly.

Dream sighed quietly and made his way to the living room. Maybe wallowing in a different place would make him feel better.

He collapsed onto the couch and stared up at the bland ceiling, hoping that maybe the off-white color would inspire him to get up and do something.

He was unmoving in this new location and his mind began to race. He knew that he had to do something if he wanted these feelings to stop, but the idea of actually taking action and reaching out was mortifying. It had been nearly a week since the ordeal with this point and it felt almost disrespectful to try and bring it up now after all this. If he had wanted to say something, he should have said while he was there in person. It almost felt disingenuous to bring it up now.

He let his head roll to the side and he looked back outside at the browning grass outside the sliding glass door, grass that had previously helped him sort out his emotions now painfully unhelpful in this scenario. He knew he had to do something, but, no matter what he tried, he always found himself saying anything but the truth. 

Why did he have to go on and make everything difficult for himself?

He sighed and pulled out his phone to see his notifications. He saw that a lot of his friends were streaming together, including Techno. From what he could gauge from the way Twitter was reacting, it was lore and Ranboo was there. Damn that kid managed to be everywhere, didn’t he?

He clicked on the stream and just listened to Techno mutter to his chat about God knows what, honestly just listening to hear his voice. Eventually, he started to connect some dots and got a good idea about what the man was saying. 

More Greek myth.

“Guys, I’m not the Achilles in the SMP,” he groaned. “I don’t have a weakness. We all know I'm Hector. Phil is Perseus, Tommy is Theseus, Dream is the Bellerophon, and Ranboo is Tiresias. We literally established this last stream. I made a list and everything.”

Dream chuckled sadly and listened to the other man talk about the dumb myths.

He could honestly sit and listen to the man ramble for hours. It didn’t matter what it was about, but he was particularly fond of his retelling of the Greek myths. He used to find it annoying, but now he missed it more than anything else. If he was being honest, he didn’t think he ever really hated it. He more just disliked that Techno was holding knowledge over his head.

He continued to listen to the man chat casually with his stream, saying quick thanks for the donations he received and clearing his throat occasionally, and Dream found his mind finally quieting for a moment. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and allowed his eyes to close as he listened to the man speak. Techno somehow managed to clear out all the fog and get him to think practically about things. 

It was a breath of fresh air.

Dream’s eyes opened slowly as he thought about how all of this actually made him feel. He wanted this so badly. The only way he was going to be able to get it was if he managed to get over himself and his fear and tell him what happened. 

His chest constricted as his heart protested the realization, knowing that the feeling would only get worse the longer he waited to confess his situation to the other man.

He closed his eyes tightly and looked at the video, just watching the other man go about his business in the SMP. 

He didn’t want to lose this.

Without giving himself a moment to think, he quickly pulled his phone out and opened up his text messages. He needed to do something about this and he knew if he let himself think about it. Not letting himself think about what he was typing, he wrote out a quick message to Technoblade and hit send.

_“hey i need to talk u about something. you free after your stream?”_

He looked at his message for a long time and felt his stomach sink to his toes as he heard Techno quiet on stream for a second. 

“Sorry,” Techno said quietly. “I might have to cut this short today.”

Dream felt his mouth go dry and his mouth hung open for a moment. This wasn’t happening. There was no way Techno was actually going to cut his stream short because of this.

“Everything okay, Techno?” he heard Ranboo question. “You almost never cut this stuff short. Did something happen?”

Dream swallowed hard and closed his eyes tightly, hoping that he didn’t fuck it up royaly.

“It’s all good,” Techno responded calmly, his character still stopped on the screen. “Just something important came up and I can’t miss it.”

As Techno spoke, Dream actually received a response.

_“Sure. Actually finishing up now. Gimme ten.”_

Dream felt a shudder go through him and he quickly closed out of Techno’s stream, not wanting to be caught watching it. He stood up quickly, feeling dizzy from his own speed, and made his way to his room to get situated.

He was slowly starting to regret even sending the text, knowing that things would be different after he confessed. 

_Aren’t things already different?_ a little voice in the back of his mind questioned. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes tightly. Sure he knew things were going to be awkward, but they were already pretty bad all things considered. Ever since that night, Techno’s treatment towards him had changed. He wasn’t as warm. Dream had been pretty weird himself, to be completely honest, but it still didn’t seem to compare to how cold Techno had turned towards him. 

He shook the thought process out of his head almost as quickly as it formed fully in his mind. Dream was in the wrong here and he was already trying to pin it on Techno to avoid the responsibility. That was not the way to go about things. 

If this was to be a successful conversation, he needed to be fully present and invested in making things right. Blame wasn’t going to be a part of this conversation.

Or, at least, he hoped so.

Ten minutes came around and Dream was anxiously waiting by his phone, hoping that the other man would initiate so he didn’t have to deal with the emotional distress of having to sit with his finger hovering over the call button, but as ten minutes turned into fifteen, Dream found himself getting antsy.

He checked to see if Techno was still streaming and exhaled slowly as he saw that he wasn’t live anymore on YouTube. 

Techno was waiting on him to call.

Dream took a few more shaky breaths before eventually caving and going to call the other man.

The phone seemed to ring for an eternity, each electronic ring seeming to get longer than before and each beat between them greedily taking up seconds. He sat down on his bed and bounced his leg anxiously as he waited for the other man to pick up. It was agony to sit with the phone at his ear, knowing that things could go awry at any moment. He knew it needed to be done, but that knowledge didn’t make it any easier.

After a while, the ringing stopped and the gentle click of the other line being picked up made Dream freeze in place. They sat in silence for a moment, both seeming to wait for the other to speak.

Eventually, Dream couldn’t bear the silence anymore.

“Hi,” he said lamely, hoping that he wasn’t making things worse. “How’d your stream go?”

He heard Techno exhale slowly as Dream spoke and was relieved when Techno didn’t sound upset or distant despite the shitty microphone from the other man’s phone.

“Went well,” he said casually, the sound of fabric rustling picking up on the mic of the phone. “Taught Ranboo ‘bout farming and how to be a good main character. Pretty important life advice if you ask me. He’s a good kid.”

“Cool,” Dream said slowly. “Cool. Yeah, Ranboo’s good.”

Another painful silence followed as Dream tried to get his thoughts together. Unfortunately for him, Techno didn’t seem to have any mercy on him and his need for time. He’d used up plenty of time already.

“You said you wanted to talk about something,” Techno said coolly. “Well, I’m here. What’s up?

Dream swallowed thickly and bit his lip. His brain was screaming at him to stop and leave and run away and never look back, but something deep in his chest reminded him why he had to do this. 

He had to make things right.

“Right,” Dream said slowly, clearing his throat and allowing his hand to fidget with the bottom of his t-shirt. “Well, something’s been bothering me. I… look this is hard for me give me a sec.”

“Take your time,” Techno said, his voice almost gently if Dream was looking for it. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Dream sat in silence for a minute as he tried to sort through the feelings of pain and frustration and focus more on what he wanted to say.

No. Not wanted. Needed. Needed to say.

“Last week,” he said carefully. “Back when we were in San Francisco. The night after you and Nick went out with some people and you asked me if something happened? Do you remember that?”

There was a beat between Techno’s response, but he did get a careful confirmation of simply “Yeah.”

Dream took a deep breath and stared intently at the wall, hoping that things would ease up and stop being so hard if he stared hard enough. He wasn’t sure why it was so hard to just finish out the confession. He was already halfway there and the words were right at the tip of his tongue, so why was this so hard to do?

“Well,” Dream said thickly, nearly choking on his own tongue. “Something did happen. I took care of Nick first, since he was bad, but then I took you to your room and you… I started… We just--”

Dream paused and took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes tightly and forced the last bit of the confession out.

“You pulled me onto your bed and we kissed and then you fell asleep.” he confessed, the words spilling out of his mouth like hot magma out of a volcano. “I should have said something sooner, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to tell you because--”

Before Dream could even get the words out he heard a voice on the other line.

“I know.”

Dream choked on the rest of the words that were just about to spill out and he felt his whole body run cold. 

“What?” Dream said carefully, hoping his voice didn’t show how broken and confused he felt. “You knew? You knew something happened and you didn’t tell me?”

Dream heard Techno sigh heavily on the other end and pursed his lips as the soft noise turned into a groan. 

“Clay,” Techno said carefully. “I was remembering bits and pieces already. I only needed a few things to remember. The hickeys on your neck brought it back.”

Dream sat in stunned silence for a little longer than he should have to be honest. Techno remembered everything and he’d been sitting here like nothing happened. He’d been sitting here lying about it and Techno was dealing with the probably distorted memories of what happened for days.

“Dave,” Dream said carefully. “Holy shit I’m so sorry. I should have just… I…”

He could barely get a sentence out with how he was feeling. He was disgusted with himself for even thinking that he could keep this kind of thing a secret. He felt like his entire body was turning to stone, the feeling creeping into his feet and up his body into his arms. He was so stuck. He was so fucked up for this.

Techno sighed and cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable.

“I was honestly waiting for you to tell me,” he said carefully. “I thought you were going to do it at the airport, but I know how the whole thing probably made you feel.”

Dream scoffed and blinked in astonishment. 

“How it made me feel?” he said in disbelief, gripping hs phone a bit tighter as he tried to sort through the feelings of dread to experience a real emotion. “Dave I’m the one--”

“No, Clay,” Techno said firmly. “I’m the one at fault here. I should be apologizing.”

Dream’s eyebrow furrowed as he tried to process what Techno was telling him here. Was Techno trying to put the blame on himself for something that clearly wasn’t his fault?

“I took advantage of you,” Techno said carefully. “I literally overpowered you and made you do what I wanted. I did what I wanted without even thinking about how it would make you feel.”

Dream felt the freezing creeping up into his lungs and starting to wrap around his neck, unable to respond. He listened in horror as Techno continued to pour his heart out. 

“I know I was drunk,” the other man continued. “I know that maybe things would have gone differently if I wasn’t that messed up, but… It was real. I meant what I said about you. My… feelings. It was dumb and I probably could have picked better words, but I did want you. I… still kind of do if I’m being honest. I know I’m not what you were expecting and it was messed up for me to do anything and push you like I did. I shouldn’t have tried anything. What I did… I got bold and put you in a place where you couldn’t do anything but let it happen to you. I fucked it up and I’m sorry. I assumed you not telling me had something to do with being embarrassed or just wanting to pretend nothing happened. I should have said something instead of waiting for you to say something.”

Dream felt the stone wrap around his throat and he could only manage a few quick breaths before Techno Concluded his statement.

“Let’s just forget this ever happened,” the other man finished tersely. “We can forget and move on. Sound like a plan?”

Dream felt his heart shatter into a million pieces as the other man spoke, dread filling up his stomach and the scrabble tiles in his brain shuffling wildly to try to form a word. Any word. Everything about his request was painful. Dream wanted nothing more than to recreate the night sober. Possibly go further and not fall asleep right at the beginning. The idea of not acknowledging it ever again and leaving any real feelings behind them was the most painful thing about this conversation.

Dream didn’t want it to end here. He couldn’t.

“Dave,” Dream said quietly, his breathing shallow and his eyes pricking with tears. If only he could see Techno right now. If only he could reach out and hold him and explain that he didn’t want to forget. He wanted to move forward. He wanted Techno.

“Can we please try and forget it,” Techno said firmly. “I went too fast and I messed up. Let’s just go back to how things were before last week. Please, Clay.”

The frozen feeling settled on his entire body. He couldn’t move. He was stuck right here and he knew that things were only going to get bad from here. He knew he couldn’t go forward from this. He knew himself too well.

Dream was in love with this man and he was asking him to move on. He could have used this opportunity to tell Techno that the feelings were reciprocated. That he wanted to pursue this with his entire being. That he wanted nothing more than for the man to be with him again. He could have done it. He really could have.

But he just couldn’t find the words.

“Yeah,” Dream found himself saying. “Yeah… for sure. Let’s just move on.”

Dream closed his mouth tightly and felt a few small tears escape despite his best attempts to keep them under control. He placed his free hand over his mouth as he heard the relieved sigh come from Techno’s end.

“Do you forgive me?” The other man asked carefully, clearly still relieved that things were going well from his perspective. “We’ll be able to move past this?”

Dream took a shaky breath and cleared his throat, hoping the action would take away any of his hesitation with it. 

“Sure, man,” he said carefully. “And you forgive me too?”

He heard Techno laugh on the other end, sending his stomach into gold medal worthy acrobatics. 

“Of course I do,” He said warmly. “I’m just glad that things won’t be weird between us. I’m glad my stuff won’t be getting in the way anymore.”

The two continued to talk for a short while before Dream eventually claimed that he was getting tired. After saying his goodbyes, he hung up and let his phone clatter to the floor in front of him.

He froze. 

Right when things were starting to turn into a scenario where he could have come clean and been honest about his feelings, he froze and allowed for a decision to be made for him instead of with him. 

Something he did take away from the conversation was that Techno’s feelings that night were real. Techno had feelings that matched his own and that was something to look forward to.

If he even wanted to pursue them, that is.

Dream wiped his cheeks against his bare forearm and cleared his throat. He was embarrassed about crying, but at least Techno didn’t seem to notice. Logically, he knew that he had made the right decision in telling Techno what had happened, but the sick, twisted, fucked up part of his brain almost wished that he had kept his mouth shut. At least then he’d be able to hold on to a sliver of hope that what he wanted was possible.

He repaired the bridge, but at what cost?

Dream laid back on his bed carefully and took a few careful, shaky breaths. He wanted this more than anything else and now he had to let go.

But he wasn’t sure if he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Medusa was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Medusa was a beautiful maiden seduced and r*ped by Poseidon in a temple of Athena. Such a sacrilege attracted the goddess' wrath, and she punished Medusa by turning her hair to snakes and for those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone.
> 
> ~~~
> 
> Holy crap I just wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you to everybody who's been reading and commenting! Nearly 700 kudos and almost 100 bookmarks! That's amazing! Thank you so so so much!!! Also, if you saw this update and then go away uhhh it's because I forgot a section and needed to fix it ^.^' ALSO pt.2, please forgive me if next week's chapter is a touch late or early. Tech week is starting soon and I'm going to be super busy!!! Thanks for reading! <333


	9. Hypnos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream's been having the same dream for a week straight and connects it to a story Techno told him. He reaches out to ask for more information on it and makes a few discoveries.

He found himself in a familiar situation, a situation he’d found himself in most nights this past week, actually. He was kneeling in front of a stone statue and gently smoothing out a marble leg with pumice, working methodically, carefully, and slowly, he made small, delicate circles with the pumice in one hand and bringing a damp rag to wet the stone as we worked. He worked with patience, care, and love. From what Dream could tell, he cared deeply for his creation and he was going to do everything he could to make it perfect.

He reached out and caressed the figure’s stone calf and sighed. Water dripped from his fingers and seeped into the hungry stone and he couldn’t help but feel his heart ache as the cold stone stood unflinching. 

He moved on to the figure’s chest and abdomen and carefully wet the statue’s front, delicately smoothing out any imperfections he came across and gently stroking the cold stone. He allowed his fingers to migrate to the statue’s ribs and let his fingers trace over each rib as if hit were flesh and bone. 

He knew logically that what he wanted wasn’t attainable, but he still had hope for some reason. Every time he touched the statue’s skin, he felt his eyes prick with tears. Every time he brought the rag to unflinching skin, he could almost feel his chest collapse with grief. Every time he held his breath just to check and see if the statue would breathe only to be met with the white noise of bugs outside and birds chirping, he could almost feel his heart shattering in his chest.

His heart continued to break as he smoothed out the more jagged parts of the statue and, without much thought, let his head rest on his creation’s chest, hoping this time would have a different response. He almost hoped for a heartbeat, but, alas, was met with the cold silence of solid stone against his ear. 

With a heavy sigh, he started to pull away, but just as he started to accept the reality of his situation, he could have sworn he heard an echo-y thump from inside the statue’s chest. His breath hitched and he grasped his statue tightly, ear pressed against the stone and praying for it to come again. After a few minutes of standing pressed against the object of his affection, he heard it again. 

Bu-bump.

Quiet and faint, but it was there. 

He pulled away and stared intently at his creation’s chest, staring into the stone pectorals of his statue and watching for any signs of life. Any signs of movement. 

Anything. 

He watched in awe as his statue’s chest began to rise and fall with shallow breaths. The stone on the statue’s chest began to crack and crumble with the new movement and he frantically rushed to hold the stone in place, afraid of his love falling apart. He felt a dusty breath against his ear and he felt a shaky breath pass his lips. He clung to the stone man, attempting to hold him together the best he could. He wasn’t exactly sure why or how this was happening, but why he did know was that he didn’t want to lose something he’d spent so much time loving and holding and caressing.

Eventually, the crumbling stopped and he stood still, fearful that any movement would turn the statue to dust in his arms. 

Much to his surprise, he felt arms wrap against him, warm, strong, and bare. That was when he noticed that his statue was warm. The chest was warm, the arms were warm, the breath was warm, and the beating of the statue’s heart was impossible to recognize.

His statue was alive.

The once-stone hands gripped the cloth of his toga and clung to him for support. He found himself laughing as he helped hold up the wobbly creation, doing his best to maintain both of their balances. After a while of just laughing and clinging to each other, the statue pulled away and tilted the man’s chin up to look at him.

And then Dream woke up.

He woke up in a cold sweat and he nearly fell right out of his own bed. He closed his eyes tightly and leaned forward into his hands, not quite knowing the reason why it had happened again. 

Dream had been having this same dream for a week straight. Same setup, same statue coming to life, same warm feeling of undeniable relief and love, and the same cutoff. The came cockblock of not seeing the statue he was so infatuated with. 

He had no idea who this statue was, but all his brain could muster was the stupid story that Techno had told him a month ago.

“God damn it,” he muttered, scolding himself lightly, dragging his hands away from his eyes and pulling his fingers down his cheeks. “Not him. Don’t think about him.”

He eventually opened his eyes and looked over at his phone and read the time on his phone. Six in the morning. Great.

Dream looked over at the recently woken-up Patches beside him and gave her an apologetic scritch behind the ears. 

“Sorry, lady,” he said carefully, honestly gratefully to not have woken up fully alone. “Same dream as last night.”

He was met with a quiet mew and for his sweet girl un-doughnutting herself, exposing her stomach for the tired man to pet. She wasn’t a Sapnap level of help, but at least she was cute and good to hold.

He continued to rub her belly until she chose violence and started attaching his hand, then opting to lay back down and stare at the ceiling. He had a lot to sort through and he wasn't exactly sure how to go about it all things considered.

He wanted to respect Techno’s request to take things easy and forget that the night had even happened. He wanted to be able to have a normal conversation without thinking about the fact that Techno had all but confessed to him and he turned him down. He wanted to go back in time and take more initiative and make things right. 

But that didn’t happen. It couldn’t happen.

With another heavy sigh, he pulled his phone away from his side table and scrolled mindlessly through some social media, hoping that the action would help him get his mind away from these bullshit dreams he was having.

He saw pictures on his timeline of Eret and Ranboo, who were both masked up and in sunglasses, meeting up and wreaking havoc in California, Bad posting pictures of Rat, and Karl just being a friendly reply guy. The normalcy was really pulling him out of the bullshit post-dream fog he was experiencing. It was mindless and easy to get lost in and it honestly helped him wake up and forget the majority of the weird dream he had. 

After spending entirely too much time scrolling and getting caught up on everything that had happened in his absence, he found the all too familiar emptiness in his chest as he felt like he was missing something serious. 

He thought back to the dream and tried to piece some of the harder things together. He remembered talking to Techno about different myths. Bellerophon didn’t match, as this dream was way too soft and gentle. Damon and Pythias didn’t match either because there was no pleading with a king for anything. He continued to think of possible things that might have inspired his dream from real life and finally, after a long while of thinking and trying to recall any scrap of knowledge he could think of, he recalled one. The first one that really struck him.

Pygmalion the sculptor. The incel who fell in love with his own creation.

He tried to remember something about the myth other than the fact that Techno didn’t like it, but all he could do was recall how bitter he felt about it.

 _“I just think that people can’t be saved by love,”_ he remembered the man saying. _“The world’s honestly easier without love getting in the way.”_

Dream’s eyebrows furrowed and he couldn’t help but connect the response to the story to how he reacted to what happened that evening they spent together.

 _“It was messed up for me to do anything and push you like I did,”_ he recalled bitterly. _“I got bold and put you in a place where you couldn’t do anything but let it happen to you. I fucked it up and I’m sorry. Let’s just forget this ever happened. We can forget and move on.”_

Dream sighed heavily and chewed on his bottom lip. He knew that Techno wanted to leave it behind them, but Dream knew himself better than that. He was still going to respect the other man’s wishes, of course, but he knew that he wasn’t going to let these feelings go anytime soon, even if he wanted to.

Dreams fingers Stan Stover the back of his phone, hesitant and trying to figure out what exactly he wanted to do about these particular feelings, and eventually he decided on simply sitting on it for a while. He felt it would be stupid to jump into the stream so heavily, especially not knowing how exactly it ended. He didn’t want to get in contact with Techno at some point, but he wasn’t sure if right now is the right time for it. Especially considering how emotional he had been the past few days.

He flipped his phone over in his hand, staring at it as if it was going to give him some kind of answer to his problem, and eventually sent a quick message to Technoblade.

_‘hey i have a mythology question. i know ur asleep but lmk when ur free.’_

Dream quickly hit send on the text message and let the phone drop back down into his lap. He looked at the blank walls around him and tried to remind himself that everything was really going to be okay.

Sure, things have been a little bit awkward between Techno and himself, but it was to be expected. They just had a huge conversation about something major and dream was still trying to pursue the friendship without crossing any boundaries. He was trying lightly and things didn’t feel as soft or as gentle as they did before.

Hell, who is he kidding. They were never really soft or gentle to begin with, but he did want it to be.

He wanted nothing more than to wake up in the arms of Technoblade. He wanted to be woken up with kisses on his cheek, being held tighter whenever he tried to leave the bed to actually get ready for the day, and all that other gross lovey-dovey bullshit that couples did.

He wanted it so badly, and he knew that, the way things are looking right now, it probably wasn’t gonna end up like that for him. No matter how hard he tried.

He took one last look at the phone in his lap before sighing to himself. He gave Patches one last affectionate scritch behind the ears before getting up and getting ready for the day.

It was a while before Techno responded, but that gave Dream plenty of time to get his thoughts together.

Of the things he recalled from the myth, he knew that Pygmalion was a guy he saw ladies who he thought were being whores, didn’t like it, and decided to make his own woman just to stick it to them. Then she was so in love that some Goddess decided that he deserved to have what he made. The dream didn’t really make much sense as to why he was Pygmalion, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was in love with something– no, someone– who was now completely unattainable.

Regardless, she was sure he was missing some important stuff. Sure, he could’ve just looked it up and got the information that way, but where was the fun in that? Besides, he wanted to hear Techno explain it.

Sure it was gay as fuck and honestly kind of embarrassing, but the more he heard the other man speak about things that he knew about, the more warm and fuzzy made him feel. Even though the other man was unattainable, it was still nice to hear him.

As the day progressed in the sun got higher in the sky, Dream eventually received a response from the other man.

_‘Sure. You free in 30?’_

Dream’s eyes sparkled at the possibility of getting to listen to the other man explain things to him. He quickly sent his response and went to get sorted for the call.

_‘yep. can do. see you soon’_

Dream happily made his way to his room and properly got changed for the interaction. He knew realistically that it’d just be a call over the phone, but the possibility of being able to look at the other man and have the man look at him… it made his heart flutter.

He wanted to look good, just in case, y’know?

After the thirty minutes passed, Dream situated himself on the couch and was surprised when Techno was the one to call him first. He stared at the screen for a moment, still nervous about whether he could actually have this conversation.

He took one last deep breath and answered the call.

“Hello?” Dream said cautiously, his stomach turning in his abdomen as he heard the other man clear his throat. 

“Hey,” Techno said lowly, clearly pitching his voice down like he did when he was on stream. “What’s up?”

There was a beat between them and Dream couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“Are you streaming?” he questioned. “I can always call back later.”

“Naw, it’s fine,” Techno said quietly, the clicking of his mouse now clear. “I asked my chat if they wanted Greek myth storytime again and they went wild. You cool if we talk about this in front of a small audience of seventy-five thousand people? You’re on speaker, by the way.”

Dream scoffed and rolled his eyes. Of course he was going to farm him for views. He didn’t really mind, but he mostly just found it funny.

“Sure, I guess,” he said casually. “I was just curious about Pygmalion. I was gonna look it up, but since it’s your favorite myth, I thought I’d just ask you to explain it.”

He heard Techno chuckle on the other side and he could almost feel the eye roll from the other side of the country.

“Didn’t I very clearly state that that one was my least favorite?” The other man said warmly, no vitriol or bitterness to his jab. “I mean, what even do you need to know? I thought I told you pretty clearly last time.”

Dream chuckled and smiled to himself. This was nice.

“I mean,“ he said slowly. “The last time we talked about it you just said you didn’t really like it and gave me the bullshit short version of it. Besides, I like the way you explain things. You just make it make so much more sense.”

He heard another heavy sigh, but could almost hear the smile on the other man’s face, and eventually Techno began his explanation of his least favorite myth.

“So basically,” he started. “On the island of Cyprus, there was this group of women called the Propoetides. They were pretty snooty, and they refused to acknowledge that Aphrodite is a goddess. Rookie mistake. She saw that and basically took away all their shame and they started sleeping around and stuff. That’s where Pygmalion comes in. He was basically this super cool sculptor who decided that he’d never sleep with another woman again after seeing these ladies.”

“That seems like a pretty big reaction,” Dream muttered. “I mean, yeah you’re allowed to be grossed out, but, like, that’s an extreme overreaction.”

He heard Techno exhale in amusement and the sound of fabric shifting through the speaker.

“I guess he just really wasn’t having it,” he said softly, his forced lower register slipping for a moment and making Dream’s stomach do a flip. “Anyway, he swore off women, right? Without a girlfriend, Pygmalion had a lot of time on his hands. So, he decides to make an ivory statue of his ideal woman to keep himself from getting bored or whatever. But oops, guess what? He made this sculpture too hot.”

Dream couldn’t help but wheeze at the playful explanation Techno was humoring him with. It was like he knew exactly how to make him smile regardless of the story he was telling. Dream continued to listen to the story. 

“He kissed the statue, gave it gifts, and even, like, tucked it into bed and stuff. The guy was a freak. After literally calling the statue his bride, there’s a super convenient festival to Aphrodite that he goes to. Once he got there, he prayed to Aphrodite to give him a woman who’s like his statue. I think they wrote that he actually wanted to pray for his statue to come to life, but shame prevents him from saying these words out loud.”

“As it should,” Dream interjected with a scoff, a smile creeping onto his face. “This guy’s creepy.”

“Aphrodite was pretty smart though,” Techno continued. “According to some versions of the myth, Aphrodite actually visited Pygmalion's studio to inspect the statue before bringing it to life. She discovered that the statue looks just like her, and she was so flattered that she decided to make Pygmalion's wish come true. Y’know, huge ego boost and stuff. Pygmalion goes back to his studio and, guess what, his statue’s alive. He kisses her and she loves him and they all live happily ever after. The end.”

Dream buzzed his lips and sighed heavily. Well, it wasn’t a perfect match up to his dream, but it was pretty damn close. 

Was he Pygmalion here?

“Happy?” Techno mused. “You see why I hate the story? It’s so bad.”

Dream chuckled breathily.

“Oh, c’mon now,” he said lightly. “You know that it’s not that bad. He’s just some weird guy that loved a statue.”

Techno sighed and allowed the breath to melt into a breathy chuckle.

“Yeah,” he said hesitantly. “It’s just weird that love saved him because some goddess thought it was neat that she looked similar to a statue some creep fell in love with. I dunno, maybe it just had something to do with the idea of falling in love with the physical appearance without actually thinking about the brain behind the pretty eyes.”

Dream hummed in agreement and his mind couldn’t help but wander to Techno’s comments from back in San Francisco.

_“I think I would have wanted you even if you didn’t look like this.”_

Dream cleared his throat awkwardly and smiled. He really needed to stop thinking about that. Before he could say anything, Techno spoke up.

“My chat is saying you used to write self-insert Percy Jackson fanfiction,” Techno said slowly, clearly choking back laughter. “Is this true?”

Dream felt himself tuning bright red and he groaned. 

“Why do you think I had an aversion to greek myths for so long,” he basically whined, resulting in a healthy amount of laughter from the other man.

The two stayed talking for a long time, mostly about just random things and eventually Dream switched to discord for Techno’s chat could hear him better. This was really nice. Sure Techno was doing his streamer voice and not really being fully himself because of Youtube’s weird censorship stuff, but it was still really nice. 

Hell, they were talking for so long that Techno ended his stream and they continued to chat about nothing. 

He missed this.

Dream was really only taken out of the wonderful time by the growling of his own stomach.

“Jesus Christ,” Techno said slowly, snickering a bit. “I heard that from over here. Have you eaten yet?”

Dream chuckled and leaned back on his bed. He knew that this was a sign that he should probably finish up and end the conversation, but he really didn’t want to lose any time he could possibly have with Techno to something stupid like sustaining his body. 

“Not yet,” he admitted. “I should probably eat. This was nice though. We should do this more.”

Much to his surprise, Techno was in agreement with him. 

“This was nice,” he agreed. “My chat liked having you around and you’re not bad company to have.”

Dream felt his cheeks heat up and he smiled to himself. They sat in silence for a while, but Dream took the initiative in ending the conversation properly.

“I’m gonna order something,” Dream said slowly. “You should eat too. You have a goodnight.”

The two said their goodbyes and Dream basically floated for the rest of the evening. He ate happily, fed Patches with a grin, and even whistled while taking the trash to the trash can outside. The hours he spent with Techno had turned his entire day around. 

The hole in his chest felt a little smaller and he was over the moon about it. His nightly routine came business as usual and he fell asleep easily.

And another iteration of the dream came with it.

Dream found himself kneeling in front of a stone statue and gently smoothing out a marble leg with pumice, working methodically, carefully, and slowly, he made small, delicate circles with the pumice in one hand and bringing a damp rag to wet the stone as we worked just like he had done before in dreams prior. 

This time it progressed a lot faster, with stone crumbling and hitting the top of his head. Dream jumped up and quickly wrapped his arms around his statue to keep it from falling apart. His eyes closed tightly and, before he could react, he felt cold arms wrapping around him. The arms slowly became warm and soft and all Dream could do was stand frozen in place.

After a while, the crumbling stopped and Dream felt himself wrapped in a tight embrace with what used to be his statue. He pulled away gently and examined the bare figure of his creation, now flesh and bone and pressed against him, and couldn’t help but let his hands wander across the perfectly sculpted figure of his love.

He felt a hand on his chin and, after a moment, his head was tilted up.

But this time, the dream didn’t end.

This time, he was met with warm, brown eyes staring back at him. Techno was staring back at him with the love and adoration he craved from the other man.

“Dave,” Dream muttered softly, reaching out and placing his hands on either side of the man’s face and staring into those eyes he’s fallen so in love with. “You’re here? Alive?”

Techno chuckled and some small bits of dust escaped his nose and mouth, the last remaining remnants of the man being created out of stone. 

“Your love brought me here,” Dave said warmly, wrapping his arms around the man’s waist and pressing their foreheads together. “I love you Clay.”

With that, the man made previously of stone pressed now soft lips against the other man’s and a gentle kiss was shared between them.

Dream’s hands traveled over the man in front of him, wanting to touch everything he could reach to make sure the man in front of him was real. He didn’t want this to end. He felt Techno’s hands begin to wander as well and a breathless gasp left his lips. He pulled away for a moment and just looked at the other man in front of him.

“How do I know this isn’t just my mind playing a trick on me?” Dream questioned, allowing his nose to brush with the other man. “How do I know that this isn’t just some fantasy I’ve made up just because I want this so badly?”

Techno pressed another gentle kiss to his lips and smiled kindly.

“How should I prove it to you?” He questioned, a hand shaking down Dream’s leg and rubbing small circles against his hip.

Dream’s breath hitched for a moment and he couldn’t help but melt under the contact.

“I think you know,” Dream said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Take me.”

Techno leaned in and pressed a fiery, passionate kiss to the man’s lips, not bothering to ask for permission but instead for forgiveness later. Dream happily accepted the bold gesture and allowed his body to be explored by the other man.

The eventually migrated from the studio to a pristine purple bed that he had set up for his beautiful statue and dream found himself being laid down on his back, his creation slowly creeping on top of him.

He felt hands pushing his shirt up and cold air bit at the now exposed skin, then he felt light kisses trailing lower and lower and lower…

And then he woke up. 

Dream jumped awake, gasping and sweating lightly. He quickly brought his hands to his chest and felt all over to make himself to make sure that he was alone. He looked around and, after realizing that he was, in fact, alone and it was just a dream, he put his head in his hands and took in a few shaky breaths. 

He was a wreck and even his dream state knew it.

Techno had requested to forget, but he knew he couldn’t. Even his dreams and subconscious mind knew he couldn’t. He wanted Techno on him at all times and he wanted to keep his touch, his kisses, his firmness. He wanted Techno with his entire being. 

He rubbed his eyes hard and, after a few shaky breaths, took stock on what the rest of his body was going through. His mind was reeling, of course, but his body was going through stronger emotions. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he said slowly, glaring at the small tent he had made underneath the thin sheets. “Fuck off.”

He exhaled hard and threw the sheets off of himself and watched as they fluttered to the floor. He was tired of this. He was tired of being pulled along by his feelings and emotions and feeling like he had no control over his life. He needed something. He needed some control again.

Dream looked at his phone and saw that he had been woken up at the ungodly hour of three in the morning. 

He needed a shower. Maybe that would make things better and help him calm down. He stood up and walked to his connected bathroom and turned on an ice cold shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hypnos was the god or personified spirit of sleep. He dwelt in Erebos, the land of eternal darkness beyond the gates of the rising sun, and rose into the sky each night in the train of his mother Nyx, aka Night.
> 
> ~~~
> 
> Whew okay this week has been hectic for me, so this one is a touch early >.< I hope y'all have had a good February! I'm just glad to have finally been able to put a set amount of chapters on this fic and I'm SO glad you guys are enjoying it! The love you've been giving this fic is wild and I'm so incredibly grateful for it! I hope you have a good day! <33333


	10. Narcissus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream takes a shower to try and cool off... and fails.
> 
> !!!NSFW CHAPTER!!!  
> If you want to skip this one, you can skip it and still get the full story. It's just masturbation, but I know this stuff can make people feel icky.

Dream turned on the shower and let the cold water run for a while while he undressed. If the dream itself was enough to get him this riled up, he worried about what it would be like the next time he interacted with the man in person. 

He took a look at himself in the mirror and frowned.

The marks were gone.

Of course they were gone. It had been a while since they had seen each other and a bit longer since Techno had marked him, but he still hoped the marks were still there. All that remained was a slight yellow tint to where the marks were, but he almost wished they remained forever. Sure they were a little embarrassing and difficult to hide, but it was a reminder of a time when Dream got what he wanted so badly.

He let his fingers run over the healed skin on his neck and collarbone and sighed softly, remembering the gentle nips, the sucking, and even the somewhat slimy feeling of the other man on his neck. He let out a shaky sigh and stared back at himself in the mirror and allowed his hands to travel up and down his chest. He looked at his hand and allowed himself to imagine that it wasn’t his own stroking his chest and caressing his cheek and playing with his hair. He imagined the hands of the man he couldn’t get out of his head.

He looked back up at his own face and furrowed his eyebrows, knowing that this was wrong but his mind clouded with what he wanted instead of what was logical. He listened to the cold water hit the shower floor and bit his lip, feeling a familiar feeling in his abdomen as his own want built up more and more.

Dream walked over to the shower and, after a moment of consideration, turned the water from cold to hot.

He put his hand in the stream of water, feeling the shower slowly turn warm, and eventually allowed the water to envelop his body. He gasped softly as the water cascaded down his body and reminded him of his dream.

The droplets rolling down his chest became the gentle touch of the statue of Techno from his dream and he allowed himself to lean against the shower wall and revel in the imaginary touch. The droplets went lower and lower and he couldn’t help but gasp as they continued to go more south. The droplets rolled off him and Dream couldn’t help but reach and grasp himself as he felt the water roll off himself.

He allowed himself to imagine the dream continuing from where he woke up.

He imagined his stone version of Techno holding his hips as he made his way lower and lower, picking up where the dream left off. This was fine, right? It wasn’t like he was imagining the other man actually doing these things to him. He was just allowing a dream version of him to give him a happy ending.

As he allowed his hands to travel to the places he needed them to be.

He imagined the hands gripping his thighs, pulling his hips forward, and rubbing gentle circles over the most sensitive parts of his lower body. He let out a breathy sigh and allowed his eyes to flutter open as he looked down at himself, his own hands mimicking what he could only imagine happening to him if the other man were with him. He watched as his hands slid easily over his own body, now wet with the water from the shower, and imagined how nice it would be for Techno to get him this slick, this wet with how much work the other man would put him through.

Dream groaned quietly and let his head rest against the shower wall, closing his eyes and allowing the mind theatre to play the rest of his little scene out. It was too embarrassing to watch himself touch his body like this, like a horny teenager desperate for anything.

It was honestly embarrassing for him and he hoped that, at some point, he would be able to pursue this kind of thing with little to no shame.

He hoped that it would soon be Techno’s hands on him.

Just as he made his hands back down south to his growing issue, he heard the familiar sound of his phone ringing. He usually kept it on silent throughout the day, but he took it off when he knew that he was going to be occupied for a while and it would be easy to miss an important message.

He groaned and peaked out of the shower to see who would possibly be calling him.

He saw his phone face up on the counter on top of his towel and, despite the warm water, he felt a chill go down his spine at the name he saw.

 _Dave (Technoblade)_ the phone read almost mockingly.

He hesitated for a moment, thinking about his situation. He was actively getting off on the idea of the Techno from his dream doing horribly lewd things to him and to answer the phone in this state felt illegal somehow. 

But then again…

He thought about hearing the voice of the other man talking to him about whatever he needed to talk about and having to remain quiet to not alert him that anything was wrong. Having to choke back noises and force his voice to be normal when responding to him. Having to imagine him in the bathroom with him speaking to him as if nothing was wrong.

Dream blinked hard and cleared his throat. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and reached for the phone. The phone was still ringing and he needed to answer it before the call went to voicemail.

He hit the answer call button and took a deep breath. 

“Hello?” he said curiously, wondering what the guy could possibly be calling him about.

He heard the man on the other side of the phone clear his throat and he felt his whole body shudder. If he weren’t this riled up already, he might not have been so easily excitable, but even the sound of the other man’s cough was enough to make him nearly melt into the floor.

“Sorry for calling at such a weird time,” Techno said carefully. “I was thinking about this idea I had before we hand the plot over to Will. He told me some of his ideas and I just need to say all my thoughts out loud to somebody before I write some in-between stuff. So… could I just say stuff and you just say ‘yeah’ or whatever while I figure it out?”

Dream thought for a moment and looked down at himself. The small droplets of water rolled off his body and hit the floor. This would give him a chance to do what he wanted while still remaining anonymous, but it still felt odd to do anything like this without the other man knowing.

“Clay?” He heard Techno question carefully. “Is now a bad time? I can always call again later if now doesn’t work.”

“No it’s fine!” Dream found himself saying, his free hand slowly migrating more south as his other held the phone. “I was just about to get in the shower, so as long as you don't mind me showering as we talk, I’m cool with that.”

Dream closed his eyes and listened to the other man chuckle, giving himself a firm squeeze and exhaling in pleasure. He knew it was going to be an interesting thing to do, as he had never doe secret phone sex before, but there was a first time for everything he supposed.

“You sure this is okay?” Techno asked cautiously. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

Dream chuckled and got back into the shower with his phone-- high risk, high reward. 

“Dave,” he insisted, hoping his voice didn’t give away just how aroused he was. “It’s all good. You just start going and I’ll let you know if anything comes up or if i need you to stop for a sec. I want to hear what you have to say.”

It wasn’t technically a lie. He did want to hear what the other man had to say, but it was rather for his own nefarious purposes. He did care about the script, but he was always happy to just leave it as a thing for other people to do and to just give to him later. But, if Techno needed a sounding board, he could do that. He’d just be a little… preoccupied as he listened.

“Dave?” he questioned carefully, his hands continued to massage his growing problem. “You still there buddy?”

He heard the other man clear his throat and Dream had to bite his lip to keep a noise from escaping his throat. God, just hearing him in his ear talking and groaning was getting him close.

“Right,” Techno said, clearly trying to act cool and collected. “Okay so here are some of my ideas.”

Dream listened closely as the man explained his thoughts for a transition between his script and Wilbur’s and Dream couldn’t help but stroke himself as the other man spoke.

The passion with which he spoke about writing, interpersonal relationships, and other spoilers for the SMP were honestly really attractive. Seeing him so passionate about something and him wanting to make it good was just beautiful. Attractive.

Fuck.

“So, because of that,” Techno continued. “I think that it would be smart to try and wrap up the Egg plot before Will starts writing again. And, as much as I hate to admit it, a lot of the interpersonal relationships are going to have to resolve since it’s not his thing.”

“Yeah,” Dream said breathlessly, shuddering silently as he felt his body react to the touch. Techno continued.

“I just hope I can keep my hands on this still,” he said quietly. “I’m bad at sharing, Clay. I’ve just put so much work into this, so I’m hoping that Will can see that I’ll be there to help and get into the specifics.”

“What,” Dream said lowly. “You? Bad at sharing? Who would have guessed that?”

Dream choked down another moan as Techno chuckled in his ear. God, he wished Techno would put that same possessive energy into him. He wished that Techno couldn’t keep his hands off of him. He wanted to feel his wrists pinned above his head and to be shown that same passion.

He closed his eyes and let out a shaky sigh. If only Techno knew.

“But yeah,” the other man continued. “The Tommy situation, you’re still in prison, so do you still want to follow through on his death?”

“Yeah,” Dream said breathily, trying to keep his brain from melting out of his ears. “It’s what he asked for, so I’m committing. He and I have talked about it and he seems fine with it. No hard feelings.”

Techno hummed and there was a long time of silence for a minute as Dream continued to touch himself to, now, just the sound of the man breathing. He felt wrong about it, but it also felt too right to stop now. He was in too deep now and he wasn’t about to deny himself any more.

Techno continued to talk about the ideas he was having and as he started to narrow down his options, Dream felt himself getting closer and closer to his own climax. His breaths were getting shorter and he felt the familiar build up in his abdomen as the man continued to speak in his ear. He tried his best to keep his voice down and he eventually closed his eyes and imagined the other man in front of him, teasing him with his words and the unintentional innuendos he was making.

“It’s just really hard,” Techno groaned. “I don’t know, it’s just really hard to think of somebody else’s hands on my baby.”

“Yeah?” Dream asked breathily, swallowing hard. “So selfish.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Techno said dismissively, unintentionally coaxing a nearly inaudible groan from Dream. “I just get possessive. When something’s mine, it’s mine and it’s hard to give it up.”

“I know,” Dream muttered. “I get the same way.”

Techno hummed in agreement and continued to talk about his ideas and Dream felt himself getting closer and closer to his release. He felt the water run down his chest and legs and drop effortlessly into the shower floor below him, and he wondered if Techno would ever get onto him about this if he knew just how lewd he was being. 

“I just need to figure out a climax," Techno muttered, clearly thinking hard about how he was going to hand over the story to Wilbur. “I can’t just leave this unresolved. People are gonna want some kind of half conclusion or some thing. I don’t wanna tie everything up all at once, but I at least want to give people some closure.”

“Yeah I get it,” Dream said breathlessly, trying with every fiber in his being too remain quiet as his own climax approached.

Dream felt the familiar feeling go up through his abdomen and into his erection as his climax approached, putting his forearm over his mouth to keep the noises at bay. Soon, he felt his breathing pick up, his heartbeat increase, and his legs shake a little as an overwhelming orgasm ripped through his body. He gasped a little louder than he meant to and closed his eyes tightly, hoping that he didn’t alert Techno to the horrible things he was doing while on the phone.

There was a moment of silence from the other man and Dream couldn’t help but worry if Techno was on to him about what was happening.

“You alright?” Techno asked carefully. “You just gasped.”

“Yeah!” Dream answered quickly, looking down at the pearlescent, sheeny goo covering his hand and washing down the drain and almost cringing at the mess he made. “Just almost got my phone wet. My bad. You were saying?”

Techno was quiet for a moment before eventually continuing again.

Dream was ashamed of himself, to be completely honest.

Dream had never been the kind of person to be so risky with things like this. He always treaded lightly, he always took great caution when approaching these kind of topics and issues, usually waiting for things to resolve before going in this deep and risking his self image just to get his nut out. This was incredibly out of character and he knew it. 

However, Techno had turned him into somebody he hardly recognized.

He was a simp, if he were being honest with himself. He would answer calls at midnight if Techno called him, he would send him money if the man needed it, he would do anything he could to make sure the other man was happy. He’d never felt like this with any of the other partners or prospective partners he had had previously and it was almost unheard of how ridiculous he felt while talking about it.

He was a wreck.

“I think that’s all I have,” Techno said carefully after a few minutes. “I think I’ve figured it out and I think I have something to send to Will. Thanks for listening to me and letting me just yell and work through it.”

“No problem,” Dream said breathlessly. “Sorry, I wish I could have been more helpful.”

“No you were,” Techno said quickly. “It was nice to hear you again.”

Dream swallowed hard and let his hand run under the water of the shower, washing away the remnants of the horrible act he just committed. 

“Really?” Dream asked, now calming down a little more after his release. “Glad I was able to be helpful, then.”

Techno chuckled and Dream felt another chill go down his spine. God, the things this man could do to him.

“Well,” Techno said carefully. “Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be around.” 

Techno hung up the phone first after they exchanged some goodbye’s and Dream couldn’t help but frown as the dread sunk in for what he did without the other man knowing. 

He carefully got out of the shower and looked at himself again in the mirror.

He really was a freak, getting off to a dream, then staying on the phone and jerking off as his friend tried to figure out a genuine issue he was having. He was ashamed of himself and he couldn’t help but look at his own reflection in shame.

He pulled one of the grey towels on a nearby hanger off and started to dry himself off, avoiding his lower regions for a bit, as they were still sensitive. He wondered what kind of freak Techno would think he was if he knew. If Techno knew just how much he wanted to get destroyed by him, just how badly he wanted to be held by him after.

Dream froze for a moment and glared at his reflection. There was no way this man was turning him into a bottom, right?

He groaned and placed the towel on his head and continued to think about what all this meant for him.

He knew that he needed to tell Techno the truth about his feelings, but he was worried that it might have already been too late. He knew that things were bad, but could they get worse from here? Most definitely. He knew that if he wasn’t careful, he could lose contact with the man entirely. He’d already come close to losing Techno before and he didn’t want that to happen again. He didn’t know if he’d be able to survive something like that. Not in an I’m-not-going-to-be-alive type of way, but more in an emotional way. 

He honestly wasn’t sure if he would ever feel like this for another person again and he didn’t want to lose it.

He pulled the towel off of his head and stared at himself in the mirror, ashamed of what he had done but glad for the newfound clarity in his mind. He sighed heavily and bit his lip, knowing that he couldn't continue like this; getting off in the shower and pretending things were fine could only go on for so long and he wasn’t going to put himself through that if he didn’t have to.

He left the bathroom and got changed into some comfortable clothes, pulling out his phone and sending a few texts out. He sent his first text to Sapnap just a quick update that he was planning on fixing things and the next to Technoblade.

_‘hey. just thought i’d tell you that i’m figuring it out with dave’_

He hit send on the message and received something back almost instantly.

_‘Holy shit that’s great! What brought this on?’_

Dream looked at the message and sighed heavily. He knew he couldn’t be 100% honest, but he would have to give the other man something. It was his best friend, after all, and he deserved the peace of mind in knowing that he wasn’t keeping secrets for his whole life.

_‘just a thought i had. we already talked about that night a few weeks ago, but i think i made a mistake and I need to fix it. can i tell you about it later ? like tomorrow or something ?’_

He waited for a text and looked at his reflection once again in the mirror. 

He was still ashamed, but this time, he looked at himself and saw determination in his own eyes. He wanted something and he wasn’t afraid to get it. He was going to tell Sapnap everything he could and try to get the help he needed, but he wasn’t going to do what he did last time.

This time, he wasn’t going to freeze. He was going to act.

His phone pinged again and he saw a response from his friend.

_‘Sure thing, dude. Wanna call tomorrow at lunch or something? I’m free almost the whole day.’_

He took one last look in the mirror and, surprisingly, actually caught himself smiling a bit.

He knew what he had to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia who was known for his beauty. Tiresias warned Narcissus' parents that he would lead a happy and long life so long as he never caught a look at his own reflection. After some time, the nymph Echo fell in love and, after he rejected her and treated her poorly, the goddess Nemesis decided to avenge Echo doing the one thing Tiresias said to avoid. She brought him to a pool of water and he fell in love with his own reflection and refused to eat, drink, or look away. He later died, and in his place sprouted a flower bearing his name.
> 
> ~~~
> 
> WHEW okay cool great I've been practicing some nsfw writing to prepare for this chapter I hope it's okay! Only four more chapters after this! We're trucking along! Thank you all for 100+ bookmarks, 800+ kudos, and all the wonderful comments you guys leave! I'm so excited for the conclusion and I'm so grateful for your love and excitement for this fic! I hope this chapter doesn't feel too rushed! Love you aaaaaaaaalllll!!! <333


	11. Sancus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream talks to Sapnap, finally, about what is happening to him emotionally.

Time that day passed slowly and Dream found himself growing nervous. He knew he wanted to connect with Sapnap and explain something, but he still didn’t exactly know how much he wanted to say. He deserved an explanation, though, after all the bullshit he’d put the other man through. Between the issue in San Francisco and not coming clean immediately, he knew he’d put Sapnap in a tough spot.

Being honest with the other man was the right thing to do.

But what were you even supposed to say in a situation like this? How do you go about telling your best friend that you goofed it so hard that you told the person you love that you’re cool not loving them when this was probably the hardest you’ve ever been in love before?

It didn’t exactly roll off the tongue. 

Regardless, The time was soon approaching when he would have to talk to Sapnap. He scheduled a call and he wasn’t about to be late for it, no matter how much he wanted to be. He needed to figure out what he was going to say to the other man before they got on the phone.

He knew that he needed to assure that he told Techno about the night and they… resolved… it. He knew that he might have to come out and say that he had feelings for the man across the country, but he would hold that off for as long as he could manage. Dream eyed his phone carefully and decided to try and clear his head by doing something mindless for a while.

Unfortunately for him and his ADHD mind, the thoughts continued to race and his brain wouldn’t let him do anything mindless while there were thoughts to be had.

Dream knew his relationship with Techno was strange at the moment and he didn’t want to risk anything by being selfish or stupid, so he was left to just sit and wait it out. And he hated waiting.

Dream really wanted nothing more for this to just be something he could run though and have everything turn out perfectly, but there was no such luck for him. He had to wait patiently and wait for somebody to come forward and tell him that he was being stupid or that the feelings were reciprocated.

It was so stupid.

Of course, he could just risk it and confess.

Dream rolled the thought around in his head for a moment, watching the AI move the chess pieces on his phone move into a defensive position as the gears in his mind turned. If he just straight up came out and confessed his feelings to the other man, he wouldn’t have to draw this out any more. He would either be rejected or accepted and he didn’t quite know how to feel about it. 

The more he thought about it, however, the more he realized that it would be foolish to do things like that. 

If he went in balls to the wall, guns blazing, he risked sacrificing all the careful work he had put into building the delicate, intricate support structures for the bridge between him and the other man. As fun as it was to risk it all for something, he didn’t want to force the bridge to collapse when it had a chance to stand strong.

He let his phone fall from his hands as the ‘Checkmate’ appeared on his screen, indicating his loss against the computer, and he couldn’t help the uncomfortable tightness in his abdomen forming in response to what he was about to do. He was about to spill his guts about his feelings to his friend and every second he got closer to it made him more and more nervous.

He knew logically that Sapnap was probably the safest person to come to about it, but that didn’t make it any easier. Being honest about feeling to anybody was a struggle no matter how close he was to anybody. Hell, even telling his mom why he was sad when he was younger was difficult. He knew that Sapnap was a safe person to talk to, but it was still scary.

He watched as his screen lit up in front of him with a message from Sapnap-- Speak of devil-- saying that he was ready whenever Dream was. He was a few minutes early, but Dream knew that if held off any longer, he wouldn’t be able to do it at all. He raised his phone once more and, after only some slight hesitation, hit the call icon on his friend’s contact info.

The phone rang only a few times before the Texan answered. Dream heard shuffling on the other side of the call before he heard any words.

“Hey!” Sapnap said warmly, huffing slightly as he sounded like he sat down. “ Sorry I’m early. I just finished up what I meant to do and I got available, so I thought I’d try to get this taken care of sooner rather than later. How ya doing?”

“Good,“ Dream said carefully. “Just a lot going on in my head right now. What were you doing earlier?”

Dream knew that he was stalling. He knew that he was the one to try and initiate this : in the first place, but it didn’t make it any easier talking about what he needed to talk about. That’s not to say that he didn’t wanna talk about it at all, he was just struggling to figure out how to place it. He knew honesty was the best policy in the situation, but no matter which way he looked at it, he found himself looking vulnerable. He didn’t want to be any more vulnerable than he already had been, so maneuvering around that it was an adventure.

“Just on the phone with my siblings,” Sapnap said calmly. “ they were just telling me about school and stuff.“

“Cool,” Dream said slowly. “You and your family are pretty close.”

There’s a slightly uncomfortable silence between the two and Dream couldn’t help but wonder if Sapnap was onto him. He was avoiding talking about what he actually wanted to talk about, and it was becoming more and more apparent as time went on. Sapnap was the one to first break the silence.

“Clay,” he said carefully. “I know you didn’t want to call to ask about my family. What’s up?”

Dream inhaled slowly as he tried to muster up the courage to be honest with the other man. God, why was talking about emotions so incredibly difficult for him? He knew logically that it was safe to talk about them to his friend, but the possibility of things going horribly wrong was too great for him to just ignore and move past.

“Just give me a sec,” Dream said quietly. “I have to figure out the words.” 

“Sure thing,” Sapnap said quietly. “No rush. The rest of my day is free. You can be straight up with me.”

There were a couple of things that Dream could do in a situation. He could just hang up and pretend it never happened. Just continue on with his life, keeping his feelings buried deep down and slowly killing himself with the own self loathing that he created for himself, never able to talk to Techno about these feelings ever again. It was certainly an option, but probably not the right decision to make in this situation.

He knew that he had to be honest here, no matter how much it sucked and no matter how vulnerable he was going to be. If he didn’t get these words out now, he would never be able to see them ever again. It was an hour and ever.

Dream took one more deep breath before jumping into what he actually wanted to talk about.

“So you know how I told Dave about what happened?” Dream said carefully, only continuing when he heard Sapnap humm in understanding. “Well, when we talked, he confessed to me about how he felt and then asked to forget that it ever even happened.”

Sapnap hummed in understanding.

“Well that’s good,” he said carefully. “That means that you can move on from this. That’s good”

Dream chewed on the inside of his cheek and swallowed hard. This was where things were going to be hard.

“That’s the issue,” Dream said slowly, feeling the avalanche of emotions slowly starting to roll down the hill. “I agreed to forget and I can’t. I can’t stop thinking about it. Every time I hear his voice, my brain itches for more. I have this gross longing, like an ache, to be physically close to him all the time in any way I can. Everything about him makes me feel warm and safe, and I always find myself coming up with excuses to call him or watch him interact with other people. Hell, I hardly need an excuse anymore. I feel like my whole life I’ve been frozen and with him, I’m thawed. Like, the ice melts away and I’m able to move and run and shout and do everything I want to do. All for him.

“I thought I hated him. Everything he said made me mad and every instance of him just breathing pissed me off. Now I find myself learning about Greek myths to impress him. I fucking read the Art of War because he let me borrow his book. I don’t care about that book or those myths or anything like that! I just want him to smile at me and feel the same way I do. But I fucked it up and there’s nothing that I can do that’ll fix it. I’ve been sitting in this feeling for a while and it just won’t go away. I used to think that I didn’t need any love in my life because I never stay interested. I thought I’d get bored or something but it’s just not happening. I’m stuck and I’m the only one who can make things better.”

There was a long pause after Dream’s monologue and he couldn’t help but feel his ears heat up. He’d never said any of that out loud and thinking about letting his friend hear all of it was embarrassing. He felt exposed and vulnerable, but part of him felt relieved. It felt good to get it all out and finally admit not only to another person but also to himself that he was in love with the other man instead of pushing it down.

“Wow,” Sapnap said simply. “That’s… wow.”

“Yeah,” Dream said quietly. “It’s a lot. I know. I wish it wasn’t like this, but it’s okay. I just don’t know what to do about it right now.”

There was another silence, but it was broken quickly by a snort from Sapnap on the other end.

“Took you long enough,” Dream heard the other man say on the other side of the call.

“What the fuck Nick!” Dream shouted, which only made the man on the other side of the call laugh harder. “You knew this whole time?”

“I mean yeah,” Sapnap said between laughter. “It was kind of hard to miss in San Francisco, dude. I’ve never seen you get so flustered in my life and it was only around him.”

Dream groaned and let his head fall into the pillow in front of him.

“Oh my god,” Dream groaned out, his voice slightly muffled by the pillow in his mouth. “This is so embarrassing, Jesus Christ.”

Sapnap laughed harder and Dream couldn’t help but smile despite his eyes narrowing. It felt good. After telling Sapnap and letting the secret free even just for one person, he felt warmth in his chest return and he felt a small laugh bubble past his lips.

Maybe being vulnerable wasn’t that bad after all.

“Was it really that obvious?” Dream questioned, pulling his head out of the pillow and smiling at his phone. “Like, was it bad?”

“Oh yeah,” Sapnap continued. “I mean, for anybody who doesn’t know you very well, it wouldn’t be that obvious, but I know you, man. You were a wreck for five days straight when we got there and you only got worse after the first night when Techno and I went out.”

Okay maybe being vulnerable was bad actually.

Dream felt his face heat up and his blood run cold as he thought about what Sapnap was implying by what he just said.

“What do you mean,” Dream said carefully. “Did you…”

Dream didn’t have to finish his sentence for the other to understand what he was talking about.

“I mean,” Sapnap said slowly. “I definitely got up to get more water and heard _something_ coming from Techno’s room. I didn’t know you were a bottom, Dream.”

Dream felt his entire face turn red and he grit his teeth together tightly.

“I’m not a bottom!” Dream squeaked. “I’m… Listen, I’m just not a bottom!”

“Oh yeah?” Sapnap continued to tease. “Then why did I wake up early that morning to find you underneath him?”

Dream’s eyes widened and he couldn’t stop the small gasp from leaving his mouth.

“You saw that?” he questioned. “Wait, why were you in Dave’s room?”

“I went to ask if he was up to going to the convention,” He answered honestly. “He woke up for a sec, said no, and then held you like a goddamn teddy bear. I just decided not to bring it up until you did. If I had known that it wasn’t exactly consensual at the time, I would have raised a little more hell over it.”

Dream found himself thinking about Techno holding him and he cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Did he really just roll over and hold me more?” Dream asked quietly, to which he was met with the loudest silence he’d ever heard.

Sapnap erupted into laughter once again after a moment and Dream couldn’t help but smile at the joy. Sure, it was embarrassing to think about his childhood friend hearing him moan like a little bitch under Techno, but it could have been much worse.

The two just sat on the phone and giggled about it for a while before continuing the conversation.

“So,” Sapnap said carefully, now having calmed down significantly. “What are you going to do?”

Dream’s smile melted away and a more worried expression found its way onto his face.

“I’m not sure,” he answered honestly. “I already told him that I was fine being just friends and if that’s what he wants, that’s fine.”

Sapnap was quiet on the other end of the line for a moment and Dream worried that he might have done something wrong to elicit this reaction.

“You really don’t see it, do you?” Sapnap muttered. “Holy shit, you’re an idiot.”

Dream blinked a few times to try and process what the other man was saying to him.

“What?” Dream questioned, more confused than he was before. “What are you talking about?”

Sapnap sighed and Dream could hear him adjusting his sitting position.

“Clay,” He said slowly. “You said he confessed his feelings right?”

Dream hesitated for a moment and thought back to the conversation they had previously and tried to think of his specific wording. 

_“My…_ feelings _,”_ he recalled the other man saying. _“It was dumb and I probably could have picked better words, but I did want you. I… still kind of do if I’m being honest.”_

He remembered the words sadly and couldn’t help but think of how he could have prevented the outcome he receded. The outcome where he lost his chance to interrupt him and be honest about his feelings. He sighed heavily and answered the question.

“He said he wanted me,” Dream recalled bitterly. “He said he wanted me but then said he wanted to just be friends.”

Sapnap sighed heavily and Dream could hear him start to walk around his room.

“Dave’s not a very outwardly emotional person,” he reminded the older man. “I mean, c’mon, he gave you his personal copy of Art of War to read. I mean, that would be like you sending a selfie to George or something. It’s super personal and he probably wouldn’t have waned to give it to somebody who didn’t matter to him.”

Dream thought about it for a while and started to piece the puzzle together in his mind. It would make sense that Techno felt anything for him since he did something like that, but that was all before that night. He had no idea how he felt presently with all the things that transpired afterwards. Sapnap continued.

“Also,” he said. “He told you about Greek myths on his stream. He probably would have said he couldn’t talk if he didn’t want to talk to you. You asked him about something he knew about and he told you in detail and made sure you understood before you left. Hell, I wouldn’t even do that for you half the time and he did it for somebody he claimed to not want to pursue anything with.”

Dream sat on the idea for a bit and couldn’t help but see where Sapnap was going with this. It would make sense if Techno returned the feelings for him, but he wasn’t sure if it was smart to take a risk and make things work.

“I still don’t know what I should do,” Dream said carefully. “If he just wants to continue being friends and nothing more, I don’t want to make him uncomfortable or make things worse. I’m the one who agreed to his idea to just be friends.”

“I don’t think that’s really what he wanted,” Sapnap said thoughtfully. “It honestly sounds like a cover up. I mean, think about how you’re feeling right now. You’d much rather do what he wants than actually tell him how you feel and commit to it. You want something with him, right? You want to date or whatever? But you don’t want to make him unhappy or force him into anything.” 

“Right,” Dream said slowly, still a little unsure about where this was going.

“Them” Sapnap said equally slow. “He probably feels the same way. He’s not exactly the most confident man in the world when you take him away from his computer screen, so he probably has some reservations about pursuing anything because he might not feel like he’s enough.”

“But he doesn’t need to do anything!” Dream found himself blurting out. “I like him the way he is.”

There was a long silence before Sapnap spoke again.

“So why not tell him?”

Dream thought about that possibility for a while and tried to rationalize any reason why it didn’t make sense. If there was a chance that Techno felt the same way towards him, it would make sense to pursue it in any way he could. Dream wanted nothing more than to spill his guts out to the man and confess every sick, gooey, romantic feeling he had ever heard, but fear was stopping him and had been stopping him this entire time. The fear of rejection, the fear of losing a friend, and the fear of having his heart broken were all things that kept him at a comfortable distance from the other man.

However…

If Techno shared these feelings, both the romantic ones and the ones of fear, he felt he had a chance. He allowed himself to imagine being in Techno’s, waking up in the morning together and making breakfast, doing dumb couples things like going on dates to satiate Techno’s coffee addiction and Dream’s affinity for spicy breakfast food, and other foolish daydreams that were dangerous to be thinking of.

“I’m afraid,” Dream answered honestly. “If things go bad, they’ll go really _really_ bad. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to come back from something like that.”

On the other side of the call, Sapnap sighed.

“Since when have you thought through something fully?” his friend teased. “What happened to the spontaneous, risk taking guy who told me how to talk to girls in high school?”

“He fell in love with somebody unattainable,” Dream said honestly, a bit of that fear creeping into his voice. “I want it to work so badly, but the chances of something like this going well is so small that I might as well just wait for things to go back to normal and ignore it.”

“You sound like you want to stay miserable,” Sapnap commented. “Clay, I think you should say something to him.”

Dream thought about the suggestion and bit his lip. He knew that was probably the best way to go about it while still maintaining his own sanity and happiness, but he was still unsure.

“I’m not sure if I can,” he admitted. “I’m too invested.”

Sapnap went quiet for a moment, presumably thinking about a way to help. Eventually, he spoke up once more.

“What if you fly him out to Florida?” He offered. “Then you’d have to talk to him about it. Just put yourself in a situation where you have to acknowledge the thing so you can’t possibly avoid it. Plan a video or something and invite him over! Yeah! That’s a great idea!”

Dream pondered on it for a moment. Sometimes you do need to just throw yourself into something head first to commit to doing it, so maybe it was the right thing to do. Techno had already seen what he looked like, so at least he wouldn’t be revealing his appearance to home people. 

“Do you really think that it’s a good idea?” Dream asked carefully, to which Sapnap enthusiastically agreed. He took another deep breath and looked at his phone long and hard before responding again.

“Okay,” he said carefully. “I’ll invite him tomorrow morning. I’m blaming you if everything goes wrong.”

Dream listened to the enthusiastic cheers from his friend on the other line and couldn’t help but smile at his joy. At least one of them was excited about this.

The two spoke for a long time after, just about anything and everything they could wrap heads around. It almost felt normal. It was honestly a massive relief that things were going as smoothly as they were. He knew logically that things were going to be the same after telling Sapnap everything, but there was always the fear that people might view you differently when you disclose important, possibly life changing information.

He was honestly lucky to have a friend like Sapnap in his life.

“Nick,” Dream said carefully, interrupting their conversation and changing directions. “Thank you.”

Sapnap chuckled awkwardly at the thanks.

“Ah, thanks man,” he said awkwardly. “Why are you saying that now?”

Dream smiled to himself and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“I dunno,” he said carefully. “I’ve just been treating you pretty bad lately and I’ve been a pretty shitty friend to you. I’m just really lucky to have you in my life. So, thanks.”

There was a silence between them as Sapnap seemed to take it all in and he couldn’t help but smile at the uncomfortable laugh from the other side of the call. He knew that Sapnap didn’t take genuine kindness very well but he thought it was important to tell him and kind of apologize for how bad of a friend he was being.

“Thanks, Clay,” Sapnap said uncomfortably. “You know I’m always here for you, dude. Don’t even worry about it.”

The two said their goodbyes and Dream was left to ponder all the things that they discussed in the hour and change they spoke. He knew he had a couple of options for how he wanted to go about it, but no matter which way he thought about it, it was uncomfortable, nerve wracking and, in all honesty, he wished he could doing anything other than what he knew he had to do to make things better.

He looked out the window and the browning grass on his back lawn and sighed heavily, relating a little too hard to the shriveling brown blades. He knew exactly what he had to do now, but that didn’t make it any easier. He was going to risk everything he’d worked to create with this man.

Honesty was his best way to go though. He would much rather be honest and have it hurt than to keep it all bottled up and never tell anybody.

“What the fuck am I going to tell him?” me muttered to himself, wondering how he was going to convince Techno to fly across the country.

He was committed now. No turning back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In ancient Roman religion, Sancus was a god of trust, honesty, and oaths. Sancus was also the god who protected oaths of marriage, hospitality, law, commerce, and contracts in particular. Some forms of swearings were used in his name and honour at the moment of the signing of contracts and other important civil acts. Some words, like "sanctity" and "sanction" - for the case of disrespect of pacts, have their etymology in the name of this god, whose name is connected with sancire "to hallow," hence sanctus, "hallowed".
> 
> ~~
> 
> We're in the home stretch, only three more chapters after this and we're done!!! I actually changed this chapter title half way through writing because I felt Sancus fit this better :). Thank you all for sticking with me through this and for all the love you've shown and continue to show this work! I've already started thinking about the next one I want to write, but I'm still going through ideas so please let me know if you have any ideas or a story you haven't seen done yet that I should try! Thank you all again and I hope you have a good weekend! <333


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